Sons of Darkness
The Night Vigil
Book One
Gail Z. Martin
The Night Vigil
Book One
Gail Z. Martin
Genre: dark urban fantasy
Publisher: SOL Publishing
Date of Publication: October, 2018
ISBN: TBD
ASIN: TBD
Number of pages: 278
Word Count: 84,000
Cover Artist: Lindsey Lewellen
Tagline: A demon-hunting ex-priest teams up with a former FBI agent to solve a series of supernaturally-instigated deaths and disappearances.
Book Description:
Demon-hunting former priest Travis Dominick works with the misfit psychics of the Night Vigil to fight supernatural creatures and malicious paranormal activity.
When a series of disappearances, suicides and vengeful spirits cause havoc and death along a remote interstate highway, Travis teams up with former special ops soldier and monster-hunter Brent Lawson to end the problem with extreme prejudice.
Excerpt
1 from Sons of Darkness: A Night Vigil Novel By Gail Z. Martin
The abandoned
warehouse squatted next to a rusting railway spur, the faded paint of its sign
almost unreadable against the old brick walls. Too sturdy to knock down, too
expensive to gentrify, the decaying building smelled of mold and dust, rats…and
blood.
Travis Dominick
moved silently through the shadows, intent on his prey. Moonlight and the
distant glow of streetlights filtered through the dirty windows and skylights,
giving barely enough illumination for him to make his way.
He knew his
quarry had gone to ground here. The ghosts told him so, and the vision that
woke him in a cold sweat showed him where to look. Travis blended in with the
darkness, with raven-dark hair and black clothing that let him melt into the
shadows.
There. He saw
the creature’s matted brown coat as it eased around one of the pillars
supporting the roof. In its beast form, the monster was the size of a large
wolf, or even a mastiff. But that’s where the likeness to any normal canine
ended. The nachzehrer was a vampire-shifter, a plague-carrier, and it had
murdered—and eaten—an entire family. Travis had come to put an end to its
killing spree.
He pulled a
silver knife from the bandolier across his chest and hurled it. It flew
silently, and sunk hilt-deep into the creature’s hindquarters. The beast gave a
howl, not from the injury—which Travis knew wouldn’t be lethal—but from the
shift the silver forced.
Sinew and slick
muscle glistened as the dirty pelt stripped away into bloody ribbons, and the
body reshaped itself when bones broke and knit with a disturbing snap and
crunch. The monster hunched, no longer on all fours but not yet standing
upright.
A burst of
gunfire cut into the creature and pockmarked the pillar behind it. Fast shots
from an automatic weapon. The beast bellowed, bloodied but not seriously hurt.
Then the bullets
weren’t silver. Fuck. There’s a newbie out there who thinks he’s Van Helsing.
Travis peered
out from where he’d retreated with his back to one of the pillars. The creature
shook off the last gory remnants of its fur. In the half-light, Travis could
make out the thing that had once been human, before it brought plague to its
family and stripped their bones clean with the knife-sharp teeth of its changed
form.
More shots tore
into the monster’s head and body, but the creature did not collapse, needing
more than steel to slay it. Then, with a burst of speed, it leaped into the
shadows, intent on bringing down its assailant.
“Shit,” Travis
muttered, taking off at a run. I could have done this the easy way, but no…some
Buffy wanna-be has to fuck it all up.
Travis held a
coiled silver whip in his left hand, and a Glock with silver bullets in his
right. Silver and steel knives of varying sizes filled the bandolier and hung
from sheathes strapped to his belt. He had come prepared to destroy the
monster. Now, he had to save the idiot who had gone looking for trouble—and
found it.
The creature
moved fast, leaping for its attacker with its teeth bared and its sharp claws
out. A man cursed, and the beast yowled in pain. Travis closed in on the scene,
to find a powerfully built blond man going after the monster with a K-bar in
each hand. Every time Travis moved to line up a shot with the Glock, the
combatants pivoted, putting the man squarely in his sights. As annoyed as he
was at the interloper, Travis couldn’t justify shooting him.
The beast stood
half a head taller than its opponent, but whoever the dipshit was who had
blundered into Travis’s hunt, the guy knew how to fight. Travis might have
answered to a different authority for his own training, but he’d learned from
some of the best, and he recognized the close-quarters moves as elite military,
maybe special ops. So perhaps the fight was not as uneven as he had first
suspected.
Travis circled,
looking for an opening, figuring he and the mystery man could double-team the
creature.
“Stay back! I’ve
got this!” The blond man growled, slashing with the knife in his right hand and
thrusting with the blade in his left.
Unless those
knives were edged with blessed silver, Travis knew the other man could harry
the creature all day without ever bringing it down.
“Get out of the
way, and I’ll finish it,” Travis called back. He lashed out with the silver
whip, flaying open a deep gash in the monster’s back. The beast jerked and
turned, recognizing a second threat, but shifted its stance before Travis could
get off a shot with the Glock, putting the man between them.
“I told you,
I’ve got—” The reply broke off as the creature put on a press of speed, swiping
its powerful clawed hand across the man’s shoulder and tossing him effortlessly
through the air. The stranger hit one of the support pillars hard, but he
staggered to his feet, ready for another round.
“Of all the
stupid, asinine, fucking idiots,” Travis muttered as he tried to flank the
creature, but although the beast remained intent on its injured quarry, it was
clever enough not to expose its back to Travis.
The stranger
didn’t wait for the beast to attack again. He came at the creature with kicks
and punches in a flurry of expertly trained movement that would have had a
human opponent down in seconds. The two long knives sank deep into the
monster’s body, and the thing howled in fury and pain. It lunged, and claws
tore into the fighter’s shoulder as the beast opened its maw and bared its
fangs, lowering its head toward the struggling man’s throat.
Intent on fresh
blood, the creature made a mistake. Travis dodged into position. He didn’t dare
shoot into the back of the beast for fear the bullets went through and hit the
man. But three side shots would do nicely—head, chest, and hip.
The monster
roared and tossed the man aside. This time, he did not get up. Travis faced the
beast, putting a silver bullet between the creature’s eyes and through its
heart. It fell to its knees, covered in its own blood and that of its would-be
attacker, and leveled a baleful glare.
Angry red
blisters criss-crossed the monster’s pale skin as the blessed silver worked its
poison, fighting against the unholy energies that animated the beast. Travis
reached for a flask on his belt and sloshed a measure of salted holy water into
the creature’s ravaged face.
Travis raised a
hand in blessing. “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, let there be extinguished in you all power of the devil,” he intoned,
making the sign of the cross. “Through this holy unction may the Lord pardon
thee whatever sins or faults thou hast committed.”
The nachzeher
that had once been a man named Rick Kohrs collapsed in a bloody heap on the
floor.
About the Author:
Gail Z. Martin writes urban fantasy, epic fantasy and steampunk for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, Falstaff Books, SOL Publishing and Darkwind Press. Urban fantasy series include Deadly Curiosities and the Night Vigil (Sons of Darkness). Epic fantasy series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles Of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, and the Assassins of Landria. Newest titles include Tangled Web, Vengeance, The Dark Road, and Assassin’s Honor. As Morgan Brice, she writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance. Books include Witchbane and Badlands.
Website: http://www.GailZMartin.com
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms
Twitter: @GailZMartin
Goodreads: http://www.Goodreads.com/GailZMartin
Pinterest: http://www.Pinterest.com/Gzmartin
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