Riverwatch (36 page)
"I heard they downgraded your condition enough to let you have visitors, so I wanted to come by and see how you were doing," she said to the Sheriff.
"I’ll make it. They tell me if it hadn’t been for you I wouldn’t have made it off that rooftop. Thanks."
Katelynn shrugged, uncomfortable with the gratitude.
In a softer voice Damon added, "I’m sorry about Sam."
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak on that topic yet.
As it turned out, Sam’s action had been a smart one; with the creature’s wings pinned to its body, it had been unable to arrest its fall. The added fuel from Sam’s clothing had helped spread the fire, so by the time the two of them crashed to the ground below in a tangled heap, the Nightshade had become a pyre. The added injury from the fall had been too much for the beast’s regenerative powers. It simply could not recover in time to defeat the flames. The beast perished in a raging conflagration on the ground, which burned for nearly twenty minutes until firefighters arrived on the scene. Since the beast’s remains were so badly entwined with Sam’s, the whole bundle had been transported down to the morgue, where it was still being studied.
The investigation remained inconclusive; awaiting the results of the forensic studies and scientific evaluations. Katelynn told the entire story, as she knew it, from beginning to end, without leaving anything out. She received a number of strange looks from the investigators the DA’s office sent in until the photos of the scene came back from the lab.
It was hard to argue with black-and-white photographs showing the charred remains of a wing jutting from the back of one of the corpses they pulled from the ground.
"I hear you’re leaving the force," she said, by way of reply instead.
"It’s true. Even if I could pass the physical again, I don’t want to. After what we just went through, there is no way I could return to a life of parking tickets and speeding fines. What about you?"
"If they let me leave town, I think I’m going to go visit my aunt in California. It’s too cold for me here now."
Damon knew without asking that she was referring to more than the winter weather.
Neither of them really knew what to say. They had been through something extraordinary and the wounds were still too fresh, too painful. Maybe in time they would find the ability to talk about it between them, but for now idle chitchat was all they could manage.
It saddened Damon’s heart to realize it.
They talked of inconsequential things for a short while and then Katelynn announced that she had to get going.
"Stay in touch, okay?" Damon asked her.
"Sure," Katelynn replied, and they both wondered if it would be true.
She clambered to her feet with the help of her crutches and bent to give Damon a kiss on the forehead.
"Get well," she said and turned away before he could see the tear in her eye.
As she hobbled toward the door, Damon called out once more.
"Katelynn?"
She looked back toward him.
"Would you mind?" he said, pointing toward the window.
Through the open drapes, Katelynn could see that it was late; very soon the sun would set and darkness would be upon them.
She nodded wordlessly, and moved to pull the curtain shut, blocking out the sight.
They’d both grown uncomfortable with what the darkness of the night sky might hold.
She suspected it would remain that way for a long time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles trilogy (Heretic, A Scream of Angels, and a Tear in the Sky.) In 2001, Tor Books will release the first book in his new urban fantasy trilogy, Eyes to See, and Harper Voyager will start his new World War One/zombie/steampunk series with By The Blood of Heroes. Joe has also written several installments in the internationally bestselling adventure series, Rogue Angel, from Harlequin/Gold Eagle.
He’s a former president of the Horror Writers Association, the world’s largest organization of professional horror writers, a two time Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee, and a creativity/writing coach who helps others pursue their publishing dreams.
Connect with him online at:
http://www.thetemplarchronicles.com
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Riverwatch
Copyright © 2002 Joseph Nassise
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Cover photo Creative Commons Copyright © 2010 Scott Duncan
Books by Joseph Nassise
EYES TO SEE
Book one of the Jeremiah Hunt Chronicles
In an urban fantasy that charts daring new territory in the field, Jeremiah Hunt has been broken by a malevolent force that has taken his young daughter and everything else of value in his life: his marriage, his career, his reputation. Desperate to reclaim what he has lost, Hunt finally turns to the supernatural for justice.
Abandoning all hope for a normal life, he enters the world of ghosts and even more dangerous entities from beyond the grave. Sacrificing his normal sight so that he can see the souls of the dead and the powers that stalk his worst nightmares, Hunt embarks upon a strange new career - a pariah among the living; a scourge among the dead; doomed to walk between the light of day and the deepest darkness beyond night.
His love for his departed daughter sustains him when all is most hopeless, but Hunt is cursed by something more evil than he can possibly imagine. As he descends into the maelstrom of his terrifying quest, he discovers that even his deepest fears are but prelude to yet darker deeds by a powerful entity from beyond the grave - that will not let him go until it has used him for its own nefarious purposes.
EYES TO SEE is now available for preorder:
Hardcover edition - Amazon.com
Hardcover edition - Barnes & Noble
THE HERETIC
Book one of the Templar Chronicles
A former SWAT officer turns modern Templar Knight in this exciting new urban fantasy series for fans of Jim Butcher, Rob Thurman, and Patricia Briggs!
A chance encounter with one of the Hellspawn left Cade Williams with certain unique traits, including the ability to walk between the lands of the living and those of the dead. Now, as commander of the Echo Team, the special operations unit within the Templar hierarchy, he has devoted his life to using his "gifts" to protect mankind from the things that lurk in the darkness.
When a Templar commandery is invaded and its occupants mercilessly slaughtered, Knight Commander Williams is called in to hunt down those responsible. His investigation quickly leads him to a cabal of necromancers known as the Council of Nine.
There’s only one problem.
The necromancers are allied with the same supernatural creature that left Cade for dead five years before. A creature so powerful that the Templars know it only as the Adversary.
In order to stop the killing, Cade will be forced to face his own personal demons. Not just those deep inside his heart, but also the one that left him scarred, body and soul.
The same demon that has already beaten him once before…
Learn more at
Shades of Reality
or
view it at
Amazon
US
or
Amazon
UK
A SCREAM OF ANGELS
Book two of the Templar Chronicles
The men of the Echo Team are back for another action-packed Templar adventure!
Three years ago an archaeological expedition led by Vatican scholar Juan Vargas discovered something unusual on the shores of the Dead Sea. Early the next morning, Father Vargas, and the artifact he uncovered, disappeared without a trace.
Until now.
An injured and badly dehydrated Father Vargas wanders out of the New Mexican desert, telling a wild story about a secret research installation and bloodthirsty demons hunting men through its halls. When word of his survival reaches the Vatican and those in charge of the Templar Order, the Echo Team is called in to deal with the situation. Their orders - investigate the facility, determine exactly what happened there, and deal with any infernal presence that might exist.
But the being they encounter there beneath the desert sands has found a way to break the bonds of Hell itself and doesn’t plan on going back easily. This time, their foe might prove to be too much for even Cade and the men of Echo Team.
Learn more at
Shades of Reality
or
view it at
Amazon
US
or
Amazon
UK
A TEAR IN THE SKY
Book three of the Templar Chronicles
When Knight Commander Cade Williams discovers that his wife, Gabrielle, is not truly dead, but held in some kind of arcane stasis between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead, he vows that nothing will stop him from freeing her soul from the prison surrounding her.
But his vow is tested right from the start when an old friend calls on him to help protect the city of Boston from the ancient scourge that threatens to destroy it, leaving Cade with a heart-breaking choice: Do his duty and save the innocent lives he has sworn to protect or forsake them all in order to rescue the one for whom he would brave the walls of hell itself?
Learn more at
Shades of Reality
or
view it at
Amazon
US
or
Amazon
UK
THE SPIRIT BANNER
A Rogue Angel Adventure
