Talon had barely sat down when the waitress arrived with a perfectly chilled bottle of Peroni. Talon gratefully accepted the Italian beer and his gaze found a smiling Casca.
The two men represented a study in contrasts. Talon was athletic and rugged with an animal magnetism, while the thirty-five-year-old Casca projected a fierce intellect with an ascetic, almost Zen-like quality about his cool-as-ice exterior. Talon favored jeans and a green Army surplus jacket while Casca wore a two-thousand-dollar suit by Gucci, befitting a man worth north of a billion dollars.
What connected these two men was shared tragedy. Both their lives had been devastated by the occult.
Casca was evasive about what exactly had happened to him, but the public record offered some clues. Casca hadn’t even turned twelve when members of a devil cult invaded his parents’ lush Silicon Valley estate and slaughtered his mother, father and two sisters. Only Casca had been spared and was taken hostage by the cult. For eight endless days, he’d been held captive at their compound until the FBI raided the place.
Talon had no idea what horrors the billionaire had endured during his captivity, but it had shaped him as greatly as the events in San Francisco impacted Talon. In the years that followed, Casca began to prepare for a war with the occult. Despite his vast knowledge and considerable resources, he lacked the training and lethal skill to carry out his plan. He needed a modern-day warrior and found one when his path crossed with that of the Delta operator.
Talon would be the soldier the billionaire could only aspire to be, the man in the field operating with all the firepower and knowledge Casca’s wealth and expertise could provide.
Talon could be Casca’s occult assassin.
The billionaire flashed him a welcoming smile. “I took the liberty of ordering your drink – service can be a bit slow around lunchtime.”
“Thanks.” Talon sipped his Peroni. It felt refreshing and made him recall his stay in the Milan countryside a few months back, when he tracked a satanic cult that was abducting and murdering tourists.
“Have you had a chance to recover somewhat from the events in Paris?”
“If you’re asking me if I’m ready to get back to work, the answer is yes.” After a beat, he added, “So what’s good here?”
“I hear the Orrechiette with sausage is exquisite. The mussel app is supposed to be pretty amazing too…”
“Why don’t you just order for both of us?” Talon suggested.
Casca nodded and indicated to the server that they were ready. The billionaire used the Italian names of all the dishes. Though Talon spoke four languages, Italian wasn’t one of them. He would just let Casca surprise him. You can’t go wrong with Italian, right?
Once the waiter turned away from the table, Casca removed a small stone engraved with a strange symbol and slid it toward Talon, who eyed it curiously. “Familiar with rune stones?”
Talon inspected the item in question. He’d done his share of reading on the occult in the last year, learning and studying the enemy, but he was a long ways from becoming an expert like Casca.
“Runes were a form of writing used by the ancient northern European tribes,” Talon said, “the Celts, Vikings and Germans, before they adopted the Latin alphabet when they became Christianized. In short, runes are Viking hieroglyphics.”
“I’m impressed. Someone has been doing their homework.”
Talon took another swig of his beer, his eyes never leaving Casca. “Your turn. What’s this all about?”
“In addition to being a writing system, runes served a purpose in magic. We find evidence of this in Icelandic magical staves and Germanic runic spells—“
“Get to the point, Dr. Strange,” Talon said with a grin. Talon would not quite call Casca a friend — in a weird way, they had become too dependent on each other for that label. They were partners, business associates, comrades in arms, but not buddies. At least not how Talon understood the term. They didn’t catch movies, hit bars or play sports together. Casca was part general and part intelligence officer, and their dynamic was all business. The billionaire respected Talon’s marksmanship and steely self-command in combat situations. Talon admired Casca’s vast knowledge and the laser-like focus he brought to their asymmetrical shadow war against the forces of darkness.
Over the course of the last year, however, Talon had come to the conclusion that he liked his benefactor and even enjoyed teasing him from time to time.
“A number of rune stones were stolen from various Scandinavian museums in the last six months,“ Casca elaborated. “The most recent robbery occurred at the Icelandic Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft.” He punched up the photographs of the rune stones and continued. “The original rune set, the futhark, consists of 24 runes, which can be divided into three sets of eight known as Aetts.”
His eyes lit up with intellectual enthusiasm for the subject matter. The billionaire had developed a genuine fascination for the occult that sometimes worried Talon. Personally, he had a little less patience for the esoteric details. Just tell me what I’m up against and who I need to take out, Talon thought.
“All the stolen runes are part of a set that belonged to Sar Akka, the winter warlock. He was a feared Finnish practitioner of the dark arts who worshipped the Nordic Ice God, Ull. If the legends are to be believed, the rune stones gave Sar Akka Ull’s power to control snow and ice. He was captured by witchhunters in 1754 and executed for his alleged black magic crimes.”
“Sounds like a lovely Christmas story, perfect for the whole family.”
Casca cocked an eyebrow at Talon, yet chose not respond to the flippant comment. He might not always find Talon’s humor amusing, but he had come to tolerate it. “The rune set was broken up and disbursed across the various Scandinavian nations, to prevent them from being reunited.”
“Until now,“ Talon said.
Casca nodded.
“So who do you suspect is behind these robberies?” Talon asked. Casca would have a theory. He always did.
“Are you familiar with black metal music?” Casca inquired.
Talon shook his head. He had been a bit of a metalhead back in the day, but nowadays his taste ran toward hard rock and alternative. That’s what turning 30 could do to you.
“Black metal evolved from Swedish death metal in the ‘80s and became weaponized by extreme ideology in the ‘90s. Initially dabbling with Satanism, the movement soon came to embrace Paganism and ancient Norse ritual.” Casca tapped a button on his laptop. An image of Rezok and the other members of Ice God flashed onscreen.
Talon immediately took note of Rezok’s genetic affliction.
“One of the biggest bands in the scene is Ice God, led by its outspoken lead singer Rezok. Suspected of murder and a string of church burnings but there hasn’t been enough evidence to make any of it stick.”
“Charming.”
A new image of Rezok appeared onscreen and showed the ghostly musician skiing down a series of steep mountains. With his alabaster skin, he blended in with the frozen background.
“Rezok is a dedicated, Olympic-level nightskier and obsessed with Scandinavian occult magic. He’s known for combining Norse magical imagery in the look and songs of his band. The winter warlock is one of Rezok’s spiritual heroes and the inspiration for his music. Over the years, he’s acquired three of Sar Akka’s rune stones at various auctions across Europe.”
“And you believe he decided to complete his collection.”
“Let’s just say Ice God’s touring schedule corresponds with the dates on which the theft of the other stones occurred. They were in the right country at the right time.”
“What does Rezok plan to do with these stones?”
“Good question. Since Ice God’s return to Norway, seven women have gone missing.”
Talon’s eyes narrowed at this latest revelation. The last year had taught him that human sacrifice fueled ritual magic. Had these missing women become part of some ancient Nordic rite?
“
Tell me about the missing women.”
“All of them were in their twenties, white, blonde, of Norwegian descent.”
“How is the police investigation proceeding?”
“The authorities refuse to acknowledge a link and are treating the abductions as unrelated crimes, to stave off a panic. But people are talking and rumors are spreading.”
“Any patterns to the kidnappings?”
“The vics were all locals from the Oslo and Bergen region.”
Talon studied the image of Ice God again.
“Even more disconcerting is the fact that Norway is experiencing its harshest winter in recorded history. I’ve analyzed the temperature pattern and it keeps dropping a few degrees with each successive kidnapping.”
“You think Rezok has been sacrificing these women?”
The question triggered a flash of his fiancée’s face in his mind, and Talon balled his fist until the white of his bones stood out beneath his taut skin.
“A life for each stone,” Casca said grimly.
“So only one sacrifice remains to complete the set.”
Casca nodded gravely. “Time is running out.”
“What happens after the eighth sacrifice?”
“According to the legends, the winter warlock’s ritual resulted in a series of catastrophic avalanches in Finland that killed hundreds of people.”
“You think Rezok is trying to bury his hometown under a mountain of snow?”
“That’s for you to find out. I took the liberty of booking you a flight to Oslo. Your plane leaves at 1800 hours.” Casca leaned closer. “You understand what must be done.”
Talon nodded. He understood.
If Ice God turned out to be guilty of these crimes their musical career would be coming to an untimely end, courtesy of the occult assassin.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William Massa is a screenwriter, script consultant and book reviewer (http://horrornovelreviews.com/) He has lived in New York, Florida, Europe and now calls Los Angeles his home. William writes horror, thrillers, science fiction and dark fantasy. More books are on the way.
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Thank you for taking a chance on a new writer. I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I did writing it.
COVER ART/CREDITS
Vampire image © 2013 under license of istockphoto.
Cross image © 2013 under license of 123rf and Sergii Denysov
Cover design by Keri Knutson and William Massa http://www.alchemybookcovers.com/
Proofing by John Evans. [email protected] You’re a rockstar!
DEDICATION
Thanks to everyone on the team! You did an amazing job! Special thanks to Dwayne Smith (your insights were invaluable), my other beta readers (all rockstars in their own right) and my incredible wife! Additional thanks goes out to Lawrence Mattis, David Engel and Kemper Donovan and finally Bram Stoker for creating an enduring, timeless literary villain.
CROSSING THE DARKNESS: A Science Fiction Thriller
A SHIP OF HORRORS. A JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS.
Faith Cadena hopes to make a new life for herself on a new world. After doing hard time for a crime committed in her youth, all she wants now is a chance at a fresh start.
Booking passage on an interstellar colony barge, Faith expects an uneventful three-year voyage spent in cryogenic stasis. But her dream of a better life becomes a nightmare when she prematurely wakes and finds herself trapped on a ship of horrors. The vessel is adrift in the far reaches of space, its crew brutally murdered and a ruthless killer in command.
With the nearest outpost millions of miles away, Faith must face an inhuman adversary with terrifying plans for the ship’s 4000 sleeping passengers…
GARGOYLE KNIGHT
When his kingdom is threatened by an ancient evil, a king is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice. If he is to defeat an army of monsters, he must become one himself! His victory carries a terrible price… An eternity frozen in stone.
Fifteen centuries later, the Celtic warrior is awakened when the world needs him most. A stranger in a strange land with his only guide a beautiful archeology student, he must battle his old adversary once again, all while struggling with his own darkness. For he is by day a man, by night cursed to become… The GARGOYLE!
“An Urban Fantasy Novel That Feels Fun and Alive.There's a cinematic feel in Gargoyle Knight...the experience is sweeping with entertaining action that builds to a satisfying climax"
Fantascize.com
SILICON MAN
A global pandemic has cut the human population in half. An android workforce fills the void left by the devastation. But some of the AIs have grown tired of being slaves. Some want freedom.
An underground movement of runaways has sprung up and wages a shadow war with a simple objective — equal rights for artificial people.
Enter Commander Cole Marsalis, head of the AI-TAC first response team trained to deal with the rogue robots. Now he has been tasked with the ultimate undercover mission – infiltrate the android underground. But to do so, he will have to become that which he hates the most…
A machine!
"SILICON MAN is an intelligent techno-thriller where the line between man and machine has never been more unclear." Nicholas Sansbury Smith, best-selling author of ORBS
"The story was fascinating, and there's a great blend of science fiction and action." - Darren Wearmouth, best-selling author of FIRST ACTIVATION
"William Massa does a great job at introducing us to a cyberpunk/technothriller setting where AIs no longer want to work for the man. It's fast-paced read that has hints of Blade Runner and Neuromancer..." - Colin F. Barnes, author of the bestselling TECHXORCIST series
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
SAMPLE OF OCCULT ASSASSIN
SAMPLE OF OCCULT ASSASSIN
SAMPLE OF OCCULT ASSASSIN
SAMPLE OF OCCULT ASSASSIN
FEAR THE DARK
AUTHOR INFO
CROSSING THE DARKNESS
GARGOYLE KNIGHT
SILICON MAN
>
Fear the Light Page 15
