Deathless (eBook)

A Swordsman Investigations Novel

John Howler (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
268 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-9554-1 (ISBN)

Infos

John Darkeson is a sorcerer in New York City who makes his living as a private investigator and police consultant. When he is called up to a crime scene of a massacre he learns someone out there has been wiping out various gangs in the area. At the same time there is a new deadly street drug on the rise that goes by the name of Deathless. Armed with his magic, various magical swords and his trusty dog Fenrir he dives into the investigation and encounters a deadly enemy. The investigation leads him to various corners of the city where a hidden mastermind manipulates things from the shadows. Confronting this enemy leads him into a conspiracy that is more deadly than he could have ever imagined.

John Howler is a man born out of time. Armed with a set of skills rendered useless a hundred years ago he now makes a living as a writer in New Hampshire. He lives quietly with his two cats and an abundant imagination.

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John Darkeson is a sorcerer in New York City who makes his living as a private investigator and police consultant. When he is called up to a crime scene of a massacre, he learns someone has been wiping out various gangs in the area. At the same time, there is a new deadly street drug on the rise that goes by the name of Deathless that's assuredly pushed by the same people committing the murders. Then, he is hired by a young woman asking him to investigate her father and his potentially shady business proceedings. He dives deep into the investigation and encounters a deadly opponent who seeks his head. During his investigation, he discovers that things are not as simple as they seem, and that drug deals and murders may just be the tip of the iceberg. He discovers that both his investigations are linked in mysterious ways and encounters a shadowy figure who is manipulating things behind the scenes. His investigation leads him into a headlong confrontation with shadowy forces, where he must confront the figure behind it all.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

I was pretty sure I’d just stepped on a turd, which did not bode well for my latest job. With a sigh, I carefully picked my way down the hall, avoiding the lumps that reminded me of the owl pellets I’d dissected in elementary school. Considering the size of these balls, the creature that made them was probably big enough to snack on a person

I ducked down behind a rotting plastered wall and tried to think quiet thoughts. I stayed crouched and scuttled across the floor, trying to be as silent as possible. If I made any sound, it would give away my presence and I wanted to try to keep this mission a stealth one if possible. Not to mention I’d rather not step in something that came out of the rear of another animal, as efficiently compacted as it was.

I continued down the hall my black leather blazer swaying in the air as I did. The building I was in was a former apartment building that had been abandoned for a decade or two after a fire had chewed most of it up and the great city of New York had decided it wasn’t worth the money to fix a low-income apartment complex. As a result, it had become another rotted husk of a building, crumbling from the inside out like a politician’s soul. It was nothing now but a place for the homeless and addicts and the occasional worse thing until it would eventually be demolished.

I should be getting hazard pay for this kind of crap.

If I had known this job would include rummaging through abandoned complexes like some horror movie victim and stepping on animal crap, I would have raised my hourly rate a bit more. Private investigators tend to get paid a lot by the hour. The fact I was a sorcerer should have been reason enough to raise my rates. Sorcerers like me should be making the big bucks. But I tend to be a sucker when it comes to helping others. My own business, Swordsman investigations, barely scrapes by because of it.

I peeked around the corner, keeping low and as close to the wall as possible, and I saw what I was looking for. There wasn’t much moonlight coming in through the rotting walls, but what little did peek through showed me what was in the room at the end of the hall ahead of me. There was a small fire going in the center of the former apartment beyond the wall and the remains of a doorway. Someone had found a metal barrel and set the insides on fire with whatever debris they could find. It had probably been left by some homeless people seeking protection from the cold. But the interesting thing was that the room was unoccupied, from what I could tell.

In fact, I hadn’t seen a single person in the place—it was as if they had all been scared off by something. I became more certain that my hunch about this place had been correct.

The fire cast tentacled shadows through the hall, which in my imagination looked like they were reaching out toward me like the serpents on Medusa’s head. In the corner of the same room, there was a small wooden cage that looked old and rotted. Inside it, I could see the forms of small animals, cats from the look of it. I saw a small shimmer of what looked like metal around the neck of one of them. I couldn’t be certain, but it looked like a little identifying collar that pets are given.

Bingo. That was the kitten I had been sent to retrieve.

I listened for any sound that might indicate something else was in the room and waiting for anyone stupid enough to come into it. After a minute of listening, I heard nothing beyond the occasional whines of the animals in the cage and the flickering of the flames. Of course, that meant nothing—any predatory creature lying in wait wouldn’t exactly be making a racket while it waited for any potential prey to show up.

Hell with it. If I waited until I was certain it was safe, I’d die of old age. I reached to my left side, pulling the black sword handle from its carrier that I had rigged up myself. The handle was for a Japanese katana, with black silk crisscross wrapping, though it lacked the normal guard on it to protect the hands. It didn’t look like much, but it was a handy weapon to have on hand when I needed it.

I held it close by my side as I slinked down the hallway, keeping my back against the wall in order to avoid being snuck up upon. I made it all the way to the end without anything jumping out of the shadows yelling boo or trying to eat my face off, so that was good. There was no guarantee that it would remain that way though.

I peeked through a large hole in the wall and spied the animals in the cage. They all seemed to be alive for now which was good—I wasn’t gonna get paid for delivering a dead animal after all. I hesitated for a moment—this was so simple that there was no way it wasn’t a trap. I didn’t see anything hiding in the shadows though. Though most creatures that use the shadows to hunt and hide in didn’t make a habit of showing themselves. Anything could be hidden in those shadows, just waiting for me to make my move.

I quietly stepped into the room. Nothing instantly pounced on me, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything there.

The world had other ideas, however. I apparently used up what little luck I had today in the hallway and I didn’t have any left for the room itself. There was a screech like an orchestra of howling cats conducted by one of those monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, and instantly something hit me. I mean HIT me—as hard and fast as a wrecking ball on crack and a twelve-pack of energy drinks.

I yelled to try to scare my attacker away, not because I was startled at all. Just so you know—I’m a big, tough guy, and nothing ever scares me at all.

I felt something hot and sharp try to grab at my neck, and I jerked it away in instinctive reaction. There was a confusing blur of movement all around me and the sound of crazed flapping as I kicked out behind me and connected with something solid. Whatever it was that had attacked me was apparently knocked back by my thrashing kick, and I took the opportunity to spin on my back so I was facing the creature.

I held up my hand to point the katana’s handle at it, and only then did I realize I wasn’t holding it anymore. Fear shot through me then, fear from the knowledge I was suddenly unarmed and utter terror at the sight of the creature before me.

The being that attacked me could technically be described as an owl, but only by someone who had never seen an actual owl before. It was at least six or so feet tall, vaguely humanoid, and like an owl it was covered mostly in feathers. Its humanoid chest, however, was bare, with only slight fur on it, and I saw it had two human-like legs, except they ended in two long talons on each foot. Its head closely resembled an owl’s, except for the strangely human cheek bones, and in place of a beak there was a mouth that looked rather pointed.

It spread its wings out around it, letting out another glass-shattering screech as it did and revealing two long arms. It advanced toward me on its pincers, and I scuttled backward on all fours away from it.

That’s when my right hand bumped up against a familiar feeling object and a flood of relief welled up inside me. I grabbed the handle, feeling its wonderfully familiar shape in my hand. I held up the bladeless weapon, and did the one thing the owlman least expected. I closed my eyes.

I ignored the monstrous creature before me, the rapid beating of my own heart as it sent adrenaline rushing through my body, the now howling and hissing of the animals in the cage nearby—I blocked all of it out. I focused on feeling the energy inside myself, my very essence. My magic.

There are all sorts of names for it these days. Qi, mana, internal energy, the force, mojo, the right stuff, life energy. Magic. It all comes from inside of you, composing your very life and the life of everything around you. It’s the very essence of power and life itself.

“Inai,” I called, holding the bladeless weapon out. I used its name. Name’s have a sort of power, and everything has one. By calling out the weapons name, I sent a signal to it that it would respond to, and when I gave it some of my magic it would activate the effect.

I focused all of this and sent it out of me and into the katana handle in my hand. I felt the burning power leave me and enter into the object in my hand. Instantly, the shiny, thin blade of a katana began to rise out of it. The steel of the blade reflected the dim moonlight above, making the blade look like it was emitting a slight glow. In a second, a full-length katana was in my right hand, and I could feel the energy I had given the blade in its handle as a pulsing power that matched my own body’s energy.

The owlman’s eyes widened in surprise, its odd pupils seeming to glow without any light reflecting in them.

I grinned, and with a quick burst of movement slashed the blade horizontally through the air, cutting a long, thin slash across its bare stomach.

It apparently did not enjoy that, not one bit. It shrieked even louder, threatening to melt my brain—or at least mess up my ability to do long division. It flapped its wings twice, sending gusts of wind like miniature tornados through the room, and lifted off the ground. It flapped its wings once more, generating more lift, despite the fact that such slow and simple movement should not have enabled a creature that size to be lifted off the ground.

It screeched and spun in the air, flapping its wings as it took off through a large hole in the ceiling and flew...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.3.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-9554-1 / 9798350995541