More Than Life Itself (8 page)

At the mention of his wife, Sam froze.

"I didn't want to do that to your daughter, truly, but Gray insisted. And that experimental disease culture stolen from his lab sure did the trick. We'd already come this far, there was no sense stopping now. It was going so well, too, until you found that stupid book." The woman's voice changed, became harder, fiercer. "Why'd you have to do that? Why couldn't you just leave it alone?"

Sam's thoughts reeled.
They'd killed his wife? Infected his daughter?

"No matter now, I suppose. It's Monday. You do know what that means, don't you, Mr Dalton?"

Monday? No. No, it couldn't be. If it was Monday that meant
…

"The cycle is broken." The anger had been replaced with gloating. "The changes you've managed to impose will swiftly reverse themselves. All your efforts will have been for nothing."

Instinctively, Sam knew she was right. The manuscript had been specific; seven organs ingested over seven days. While it hadn't said what would happen if the ritual wasn't completed, Sam had no doubt that by its nature it wouldn't be good for it to be interrupted in midstream. Which meant Jessica was going to die, unless he could start the cycle all over again …

Sam went berserk. He yanked on his bonds, trying to pull his arms and legs free. He twisted his wrists and rotated his ankles. He bent his neck and tried to bite the ropes that secured his chest to the back of the chair.

None of it was any use.

At last, exhausted, he slumped in his seat, gasping for breath.

Despair rose and then buried him beneath its tide.

At that moment the woman screamed, "Yes! Yes! There it is! Now, Gray, now!"

Sam felt a sharp stab in his thigh, followed by pressure as something was injected into his system. Immediately, his muscles began to cramp and then stiffen. Like a slow, rising shadow, the numbness spread upward through his legs, to his hips, to his abdomen, rising higher with each passing second.

He heard the pages of a book being turned, and the woman's voice came out of the darkness once more, rising with excitement until it reached the fevered pitch of exultation. "The seventh and final death - a heart stopped in the moment of despair. We've done it, Gray, we've done it. Jason will live!"

Sam felt his heart seize, flutter, seize again.

This time it did not restart.

In that moment between the stillness of his heart and the pending death of his mind, before the darkness swept in and swallowed him whole, Sam Dalton came face to face with a harsh reality of life.

Love was the most powerful of all human emotions, and in its name people would do horrible things. Lie, cheat, steal, even kill. It was clear that his captors were following another ritual, one similar to but slightly different from his own. Sam knew instinctively that it had come from a book, and he had little doubt from whom they had obtained it.

Equally obvious was the fact that he wasn't the only person who loved someone more than life itself.

More than their own life, or anyone else's, for that matter.

The darkness closed around him one final time, and somewhere in its thunderous depths, he could hear an empty-eyed saviour laughing wildly.

About The Author

Joe is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles trilogy, and several installments in the Rogue Angel action-adventure series 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 writing coach who enjoys working with other writers and helping them attain their publishing dreams.

Connect with him online at:
www.josephnassise.com

Twitter:
@jnassise