The small town of Rio Hevrir has been under siege for years... held captive by dark forces that, for most people, are simply the stuff of nightmares and fairy tales. There's been resistance, but not enough. Until now. She didn't know who they were, but she'd seen them deep in her heart - battling the demons and their minions and walking away from those encounters battered and bloodied, and not without losses, but victorious. Rio Hevrir would continue to bleed through the winter. But when the summer sun finally began to shine long hours and bring life back to this place, she would see this band of warriors with her own eyes. Now she just needed to be patient. They were beginning to awaken and finally see the path God had chosen for them stretching out toward the far off ocean. They were awakening and seeing and converging... and this summer, they would become heroes. Sister Amanda had seen them all: J.J. Dawson - an orphaned high school wrestling champ who still copes with the small town rumors that implicate him in his parents' murder. Liberty Haley - a transplanted loner content to hide from her painful past in the pages of a sketchbook. William Russell - a brilliant scientific mind hiding between a Stetson and a pair of Tony Lama's to avoid being classified as a nerd. Staci Tran - the pampered boarding school princess still trying to come to terms with the tragedy she'd witnessed a few months before. Joshua Forester - heir to his father's entertainment empire and all the skeletons hidden in the corporate closet. Tiffany Baxter - the mysterious, multi-faceted young woman tied more closely to them than anyone could have imagined. Sister Amanda had faith... but it was all she had left. ----- The first of many adventures, "Summer of Blood" forges a bond between the members of the Rio Crew as they struggle with the darkness that looms over Rio Hevrir and the impossibility that they could actually become friends.