BuckeyeAngel

Cara wakes because of the moon. The moon always sends the rush of fight or flight chemicals in her blood, galvanates her body with a warning of danger , a command to wake and act. The mechanical scratching announces Its presence. The monster is after her again, coming for her. That had left her scratched and bleeding and almost dead. She had a few minutes because she knows. She knows the sound of It. It’s smell. The hoarse and grating breath, the stench of sweat and malevolence. She knows because she has been in a room with It before. But now she is bigger, stronger, and deadlier. Now she is angry. It stole her family, left her alone and scorned, and shunned. This time she will fight back. This time Cara will fight to kill. The creature slips stealthy into the locked room. The counselor has brought a fifteen year old bully for company or camouflage or maybe both. He tells the bully to hold her down but she jumps forward and It is caught unaware and she is punching, scratching, and kicking. She broke the boys nose and he is bleeding. The mans testicles are crushed. She brings her foot down on the man's knee to snap the joint. Both man and boy are unconscious. It will be back she knows it. For nw she waits for them to take her to jail. Cara is twelve years old. Two years later-Cara is in an ugly dark official transport van. The sun is blinding after two years of confinement. The feeling of movement is alien. She has only been transported a couple of times during her captivity. She feel the drugs in her blood, dulling her senses. She does not know where she is being taken. Since she was five she has not known where They will send her next or what she will have to face when she gets there. She had been at The Cage - low brick prison-maximum security juvenile detention prison. Than she realizes she is in Riverside County where her aunt lives. Where she had been arrested, convicted, and sentenced two years ago. Than she is in the desert which is better than the city, there are less people and you can see things coming and run. Than she sees the group home. She sees her new jailer Mrs Sharonda . Her mouth is in a hard line, a warning :Don’t mess with me. There will be no slipping past this one. Than Ms. Sharonda said they were on a levels system. The home was level five. Cara was an expert on group homes since she was nine years old. She is to be in the ninth grade and Ms. Sharonda asks if Cara can handle that and she said yes. Cara has not been in school since seventh grade, The Cage only had textbooks. Than Cara is told to read something and it was some poetry. It was a test. Her first instinct always is too hide any abilities from strangers until she knows what the test is for. She was told a mini bus would would take her back and forth to Las Piedras High. She was to start the next day. .Than Cara was told she’s t see the psychiatrist. Cara asked for a name change Maybe if she could be anyone else the monster will not be able to find her this time. She was told the school changed her name on the role, she will be Eden Ballard. It was a start. Than she seen Dr. Everhard and questioned. Every answer is Cara gives is made to make her appear normal. No matter how she answers she will get medications. She wish the medications would work. Since that night she sees and hears Them. She grabbed a pen from the psychiatrists desk. A pen can be a functional weapon. When in her room she checks the door. She has spent most of her life learning to pick locks and get out and into places.  At dinner Cara meets the other kids. A spectrum of psychiatric disorders. Monique was the largest girl and when given the chance she asks Cara /Eden had been sent to Y A. Cara had been the youngest in jail. There had not been such a thing as home since Cara had been five. Roarke has been dreaming but all he remembers is the glare of the moon. Roarke is an FBI agent. Than Roarke checks his phone and he has a message” Special Agent Roarke, I’ve been trying to get you for a long time.” Roarke is getting many voicemails by Sheriff Ortez taunting him on Cara’s disappearance. Cara had been captured but escaped. Roarke is obsessed with Cara. Roarke is on leave as he needed to step away he was shaken from his last interaction with Cara. Roarke is driven to investigate a cold case involving Cara- she had been fourteen. Roarke questions many of the rules he has lived by. Roarke goes to the place of Cara’s childhood where the sheriff works and lives. Roarke needs answers and it brings him to seeing the horror Cara experienced when so young. Roarke learns a human monster is troweling Cara’s old H S. Roarke goes back to Cara’s first group home and something wasn’t right there. Roarke was going to find out the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. But it was sad there can be such reality in a novel that is so horrendous . This was great writing with a great plot. This grabbed me right from the start  and didn’t let go until the end. You must read the books in this series in order. This was so realistic you can find a lot of these type events in our lives today. My heart went out to Cara and all she endured to become what she was a vigilante killer of what she saw as evil. Somehow the past and present being told didn’t annoy me like it usually does. The author did an excellent job on this story and handling of the horrible  at can and do happen. This book is fantastic and I highly recommend the whole series as well as this book.