Riverwatch

by Joseph Nassise

  He couldn’t allow that to happen.

  "God forgive me," he whispered in anguish as he pushed his way through the door without stopping, never once looking back.

  Stepping through the door, Sam found himself in the room that formed the base of the clock tower. The walls rose high into the darkness, where somewhere up above the clock and bellworks had once hung. They were long gone now, he knew, victims of the ravages of time and lack of money. The stone walls had been designed with great archways to provide access to the roof proper and to let the sound of the bells free of the chamber. From where he stood Sam could see through several of these arches.

  Moloch was nowhere in sight.

  The room itself was fairly large. Sam estimated it to be around fifty feet square. Moloch could not have crossed it that quickly.

  Which meant he had to have gone upward.

  As the thought occurred to him a warm breeze danced across his skin, and Sam’s response was near instantaneous.

  With reflexes boosted high with fear-induced adrenaline, Sam threw himself diagonally forward, slamming his body violently into the stone flooring underfoot, his right arm outstretched in an effort to protect the mason jar clutched in that hand. Seconds later the Nightshade’s deadly talons raked the air where he’d been standing milliseconds before.

  Giving forth a loud piercing cry, the beast disappeared into the darkness.

  Sam scrambled to his feet, using his other hand to pull the roadside flare from his pocket.

  The Nightshade will try again, he thought, and this time I’ll be ready.

  The attack came only seconds later.

  This time Sam knew what was coming, and heard the shrill whistle in the air as Moloch’s body dropped from high above.

  Sam waited, his body tense with anticipation.

  Now he could see the dark form above, growing larger with each passing second as the distance between them lessened.

  Still, he waited.

  Sam could imagine those claws, stretched out, ready to sink into his skin. Instead of running, he simply raised his arms closer to one another and triggered the flare he held in his left hand.

  Then he thrust its burning end into the open mouth of the mason jar he held in his hand.

  The mixture inside ignited lightning-quick and flames shot up out of the jar’s mouth.

  Cocking his arm, knowing death was only scant feet away, Sam heaved the bottle with all his might directly at the beast.

  The bottle struck the Nightshade in the middle of its chest, shattering the glass and spreading the burning mixture across its flesh.

  Screaming in surprise and pain, the beast was diverted from its attack, crashing clumsily into the stone floor.

  Sam yanked the last bottle from his pack.

  The creature was less than six feet away. Its hide was awash in flame, the mixture sticking to its skin and igniting what was left from Sam’s first attack. It screamed again in rage and pain, and then slowly began to climb to its feet.

  "Die, damn you! Die!" Sam screamed.

  Using the flare as an igniter again, he threw the last bottle.

  His luck held, the bottle struck the beast across the side of the head and it collapsed, its body now covered with a raging fire.

  Sam heard a cry behind him, and turned to see Katelynn crawling through the doorway. He rushed to her side but before he could ask her what had happened to her and Damon, Katelynn pointed over his shoulder and gasped, "Look!"

  Chapter Forty-two: Inferno

  Somehow, the beast had climbed to its feet.

  Katelynn and Sam watched in fascinated horror as the Nightshade took one step toward the roof’s edge, then another.

  And another.

  The flames were burning fiercely now, the homemade napalm smeared across most of the creature’s torso. The frantic beating of its wings simply fanned the flames, adding to its own destruction.

  But they could see that it wasn’t burning quickly enough.

  While the heat was intense, the fire had not spread to the rest of the creature’s body, burning only where the gasoline mixture had soaked into the skin. With its supernatural healing, Moloch would survive the burns if he found some way of putting out the flames before they consumed him.

  The beast took a fourth step.

  A fifth.

  Each step bringing him closer to freedom.

  Crouched against the far wall, using his body to shield Katelynn from the heat, Sam realized what the creature was going to do. Once it reached the edge of the roof, it would launch itself into the open air. While the wind of its flight might fan the flames, it would also allow the beast to reach the lake on the other side of campus. Once there, it could plunge beneath the lake’s surface, extinguishing the flames and finding a place to hide. There it would have the safety to gather its strength and slowly heal itself.

  Sam knew he could not allow that to happen; they’d gotten two chances at the beast. They would not get a third.

  He had to act now.

  The creature’s agonized shrieks of pain echoed off the room’s stone walls; nearly deafening in their intensity. Sam pulled Katelynn’s head closer to his own and put his lips next to her ear so she could hear him over the noise.

  "Take care of Damon."

  Before she could react, he sprinted across the room at full speed directly at the tall burning figure that was just reaching the edge of the roof.

  Halfway in shock from the pain of her broken leg, it took a moment for Katelynn to realize what Sam was doing.

  When she did, she screamed in horror. "Sam! Noooo!"

  It was too late to stop him, and deep inside she knew it.

  At the edge of the roof, the Nightshade spread its wings wide, preparing to cast itself off the rooftop and escape.

  Sam was only a step or two behind it, and with one, great wordless scream of rage and despair he launched himself at the beast.

  In that moment, just before his body collided with the burning form of the beast, Sam realized something.

  It was okay to be afraid.

  Fear is what makes us all human. It is fear that allows us to rise above ourselves, to reach that much further and that much higher, to strive to achieve just that little bit more. If we had succumbed to our fears, man would never have made it past the Ice Age. There is too much to be afraid of in our lives; fear of ourselves, fear of others, fear of our emotions and our lack thereof, fear of every action we might take every day of our lives. We rise above that and we move forward, facing our fears with a sense of courage that lives within us all, waiting for the chance to be let out.

  As Sam’s body closed the distance that separated him from the beast’s burning form, he was very, very afraid.

  But that was okay.

  I guess I’m not as much a coward as I thought, he mused to himself as his body crashed into Moloch’s, the momentum taking them both over the edge of the roof. The intense heat of the flames against his flesh only caused him to lock his arms that much tighter around the body of his enemy, effectively pinning the creature’s wings against its sides.

  As they dropped over the edge and the ground rushed up to meet them, over the shriek of the creature and his own wordless cries of rage, Sam thought he heard Katelynn call his name.

  In the second before he and the Nightshade crashed to the ground, Sam whispered a single word.

  "Goodbye."

  Epilogue

  Two weeks later.

  Glendale Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

  Damon was resting in bed watching television when Katelynn knocked on the open door to his room.

  "Come on in," he said, a genuine smile crossing his face, the first in days.

  Katelynn crossed the room on her crutches and settled into the chair next to the bed. She was tired; the last two weeks had been a blur of activity as the police and several different agencies worked to understand just what had happened here over the last several months. With Sam dead and Damon in ICU, she had b
een their primary source of information.

  "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.josephnassise.com

  http://www.thetemplarchronicles.com

  *** ***

  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

  Kindle edition - Amazon.com

  Hardcover edition - Barnes & Noble

  Nook 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 ex
pedition 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

  Genghis Khan carved out a legacy of bloodshed and conquered kingdoms that has lasted almost eight hundred years. But while his name and deeds live on in the annals of history, his tomb has never been located… until now.