“Cursed? How the hell is that possible? No one’s been near him since I touched down except for you and me.”
Andrian waved his hand. “I am only repeating what the shaman tells me. I have no idea how anyone would have gotten to him. But there is always the chance that they employed an unusual method to do this.”
I wasn’t sure any of this made sense. I’d heard rumors of magic and all that crap before, but at the Academy, the instructors focused on real world problems rather than the stuff of legends. “Yeah, but wouldn’t a curse have to be done with the person close to Zero? I mean, he was fine until we rolled the Rover. It was after that that he went bonkers.”
Andrian translated for the shaman who clucked her tongue twice and then rattled off a machine gun of Malagasy that I couldn’t even begin to start to translate. Andrian waited until she’d finished and then turned back to me.
“She says that whoever did this knew exactly who they were targeting. Being in the same location is not necessary to exert will over him.”
I looked down at Zero’s body. “So, could this guy we’re running from – Joobah – could he do this?”
Andrian frowned. “He could not back when I knew him much better than I do now. But many, many years have passed since we were close. And anything could have happened in the ensuing time.”
“Jon Merz’s THE KENSEI, in which a fixer for the vampire council whose role is to ensure that their race remains hidden, returns from a pair of deadly assignments, beaten and bruised and looking for solace-through-training from a master in ninjutsu; despite his seclusion in a Japanese village his past has found him, to Daniela Rapp at St. Martin’s, for publication in Spring 2011, by Joe Monti at Barry Goldblatt Literary (NA). ”
Announcing DARK OPS: Unsanctioned – The Lawson Vampire Missions, a special 3-chapbook set complete with a beautiful slipcase from UK publisher Ghostwriter Publications. In this special set, you’ll read three never-before-seen missions where Lawson is forced to operate off-the-books and without approval from the Council. These are Dark Ops, the kind that can get him killed…but sometimes, you just have no choice.
Book 1: The Cairo Connection brings Lawson to the Middle East at the request of his old mentor Zero to help track down a vampire acting as moneyman for various terror groups. But why hasn’t he been sanctioned by the Council before? A startling revelation means more heat than just the weather in this sizzling foray.
Book 2: A Forced Disappearance pushes Lawson to the edge of his operational ability when he’s asked by the Lycanthrope Elder Belladonna to find her missing protegee Monk. The trail leads Lawson exactly where he least expects it – back to his own people – and more shadowy conspiracy than he can stomach.
Book 3: Canary Trap sees Lawson getting himself declared Rogue in order to flush out a leak within the Fixer service. Now with all active Fixers looking to put a bullet in him, he’s got 24 hours to find the traitor before his former friends find him first.
3 chapbooks all bound with their own gorgeous cover surrounded by the beautiful slipcase seen above. This collection will be published in April 2010 and costs just 4.99 in British pounds, which equals about $7.81 – it’s a great deal and the order page will be going up very soon.
The sun blazed through the windshield and made me squint to see the dusty road ahead of us. But Andrian looked completely unfazed. And why shouldn’t he be? This was his country, after all, and he knew it better than I did. For the moment, I was content to lean back and recover from killing the guard.
I hadn’t killed very many people yet, so the whole business was still somewhat unusual to me. I had no problems with the fact that I was a Fixer, and killing – more often than not – was what I did. After all, by the time the Council handed down a sanction, you had to have done some pretty serious crap to get a visit from the likes of me.
But the fact that I brought death and mayhem wherever I went still didn’t feel comfortable. I wasn’t a mindless killer, but a surgical weapon to be employed as my superiors saw fit.
And that was fine.
But in the Academy, they never told you about what it’s like to look into someone’s eyes and see the light fade from them. To see the way their incisors extend and then retract as death comes for them. To know that they are well and truly gone and there’s nothing that can be done to bring them back.
That kind of close-up personal relationship with my targets? That was what took getting used to.
But I usually shrugged it off and chalked it up as more experience. Eventually, I reasoned, I’d get used to it or at least find a way to make peace with the fact that I had shuffled more than a few of my kind off this mortal coil. For now, though, it was still relatively new.
“Are you all right?”
I looked over and saw the concern shadowing Andrian’s face. He kept his hands on the steering wheel but his eyes were on me.
“Fine, why?”
“You look as though you are trying to figure something out.”
Discussing the state of my thoughts with Andrian didn’t seem like a good idea. After all, I’d only met him yesterday. Doing the couch trip with him would have been far too self-pitying for my taste. And while Zero may have trusted him, I had yet to make up my mind about the guy. Showing too much weakness right now was not in my plans.
“Just worried about Zero.”
Andrian said nothing for a moment, preferring to stare into my eyes. Eventually he shrugged and turned back to looking out of the windshield. “I have faith that he will be fine once we get him to the doctor.”
“How much further?”
“Not far.”
I frowned. I hate vague answers. I like precise details. Then I can plan better. But despite Andrian’s attitude being a little too laid back, I couldn’t complain too much. He was driving well and at speed.
I checked the clock and reasoned that Joobah must have realized they’d had their line penetrated and double-backed on his position by now. They may have even found the corpse I left behind.
If that was the case, they’d be stomping mad to get on our trail. I wished I’d been of the mind to slash their tires or something to slow them down, but Andrian and I had needed to hustle.
Now that decision might be coming back to haunt me.
“I wonder if Joobah found the body yet.”
Andrian slammed on the brakes so hard I flew forward into the dashboard, bouncing my skull off the windshield at the same time. “Shit!”
“What did you say?”
I came off the dash and rubbed my head. “I said shit. You know, as in ‘why the hell did you just slam the brakes without warning me first?'”
“Not that,” said Andrian. His face looked much more serious now than it had been seconds earlier. “The name you said.”
“Joobah.”
“Yes. That one.”
“What’s the big deal? It was what those guys back there were talking about. He’s the dude in charge apparently.”
Andrian leaned back in the driver’s seat and closed his eyes. A deep sigh came out of him and when he looked back at me, I could see the change that had come over him.
You might recall a few months back I asked a lot of you what you’d think about an idea I had to develop what was basically a Jon F. Merz magazine – something much more than just a newsletter, with free fiction, reviews, non-fiction, and more in it. Based on your responses, I’ve decided to reformat my official newsletter BOSTON NOCTURNE and turn it into a newsletter/magazine very much along the prototype I asked you all about.
Tomorrow, issue 1 – the February 2010 edition – launches.
BOSTON NOCTURNE is free. Free fiction. Free reviews. Free opinion. Free practical safety tips. And free much more. Imagine an innovative experience unlike any other author newsletter and you get BOSTON NOCTURNE. It will be published monthly and delivered straight to your email, hassle-free.
The only way to get it: send me an email. That’s it. Quick, simple, easy, and best of all – free.
One more thing: if you’re already subscribed to my original newsletter from way, waaaaay back, you don’t need to resubscribe. I’ll import your email address from that list and get you going right away. But if your address has changed or if you haven’t gotten any recent updates, you’ll definitely want to send a new email to receive BOSTON NOCTURNE.
You might recall a few months back I asked a lot of you what you’d think about an idea I had to develop what was basically a Jon F. Merz magazine – something much more than just a newsletter, with free fiction, reviews, non-fiction, and more in it. Based on your responses, I’ve decided to reformat my official newsletter BOSTON NOCTURNE and turn it into a newsletter/magazine very much along the prototype I asked you all about.