Saint Peter's Gate: Path of Darkness - Softcover

Comesanas, Fran

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1490781277 ISBN 13: 9781490781273

Verlag: Trafford Publishing, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

“Comesanas intertwines the age old parable of Heaven, Hell, and Earth into a page turning and captivating novel with gripping characters that the reader will both love and hate.” —The US Review of Books Bitter and resentful toward humanity because of her past life, a ruthless hunter demon tracks and claims the souls of her human victims, offering them nothing but terror and death. As her career as a hunter progresses, she discovers that a rogue demon is hatching a diabolical plot to raise an army of demons to take control of Saint Peter’s Gate to usurp power. As the hunter begins to discover more about her past, she finds out that the rogue demon is responsible for her family’s death. Will the knowledge of what really happened to her family change her feelings about humanity, or will she be dragged into darkness, consumed by her constant contact with the damned souls she harvests?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

As an introduction, Fran Comesanas is a new adult writer. This is his first novel with designs on continuing the Saint Peter's Gate story. The Author is currently living in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

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Saint Peter's Gate

Path of Darkness

By Fran Comesanas

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2017 Fran Comesanas
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8127-3

CHAPTER 1

Her last victim was still fresh on her lips, even though it had been more than a week. Bitter, she thought. The victims she sent to the hereafter didn't taste like chicken, or the other white meat. They tasted like deceit and wickedness. She decided he had deserved his fate. She had brought him to his knees and made him scream in terror, just like the countless other souls she had sent to meet their maker.

She hadn't always been so hateful, but since having started her career, she could tell that the scent of dishonor had become much thicker in this place, more so than from the time before. It was evolution, she thought. Humans seemed to have always been ruled by whatever evil was laid before them, but they only got worse, never better. They always got weaker, never stronger.

If good people like her parents could succumb to evil, these others most certainly deserved to die. So what if they all died like rabid animals?

Over the years, she had seen an uncountable number of humans fall to darkness. Looking up at the sky, she knew that she could be making better use of her time, but she couldn't help her feelings. Humans were weak and pathetic. These were the only words she could use to describe the inhabitants of this world, spreading across it like a plague. Humans were easily capable of destroying everything they touched but were, unfortunately, just as capable of compassion at nauseating, annoying levels.

She knew her emotions were bordering on anger and that could be dangerous, but that feeling could come to be useful too. Very soon, she thought. She only needed to control it until the proper time. It didn't matter much to her, but she realized that nearly all humans could show some level of compassion, even if it was only on a microscopic level. She more often saw the darker side. Almost always, humans would slice your throat or stab you in the back, if no one were looking. If they stood to gain from their acts of treachery, no matter how large or small, they would slip into that darkness that was ever so enticing to their dark desires.

Some committed their treachery with heartfelt guilt and others with a smile on their lips, without even a second thought. They were always trying to get ahead or looking for the easy way. They were always trying to secure even the slightest chance for wealth or power. However, all of them would also shake their heads in emphatic agreement that human life was more important than any material gain they could ever hope to secure, but they didn't really believe it, not for a second. Hypocrites, she thought. Of course, her victims almost always changed their tune when she plied her craft. More often than not, with her target's last breath, they would ask for a second chance. Some actually rated one, most not so much. That wasn't her call though. Second chances weren't in the cards for the people she most often dealt with. Sure, there were always exceptions, and she rarely looked forward to dealing with that particular lot.

The do-gooders were the ones that actually had morals and values. They were strong and usually had very few regrets in life. These were the people that when push came to shove, would always choose what was right, even if it meant that it would make their lives more difficult and hers a little more, well, awkward. When she came for them, they always seemed to have questions that she could not answer. Some called her an angel. She always scoffed at that. An angel wouldn't be caught dead harvesting human souls. Angels were far too powerful, far too important for such menial work. They had better things to do with their time. However bitter she might be, she never derived any real pleasure from having to take a life that actually benefited the human race, even if that benefit was small and seemingly insignificant. Ember smiled cruelly then. That wasn't the case at all with her current target, was it?

* * *

Daniel Matherson III was born into a rather wealthy family on the West Coast of the United States. Intelligent and ambitious, he grew up fast. Around the rich and powerful people that he was exposed to, he had needed to. He learned quickly whom he could align himself with and whom he should discard as a potential benefactor. He had lost a brother and his father during his teenage years, but that never seemed to have affected him emotionally. Daniel had stepped on many a neck to get to where he was now. Some were enemies, but most were friends. They were friends that came to dinner at his home on Friday or play a round of golf on Saturday. It never even occurred to him that his friends were far and few between these days, but he really didn't care. Many of his friends had lost their jobs, their homes, and even their families and lives to Daniel's treacherous business practices. Profit was the name of the game for him. The world of finance, it seemed, was like a school of piranha, feeding on anything and everything just to make that extra dollar more than the next guy. As far as piranha went, Daniel had very big teeth, and if he had to chew his way through a few of his rivals or friends along the way, so be it. He had a ravenous appetite, even for a piranha. Nineteen eighty-six was panning out to be a great year.

He had planned for a big day today. He spent the previous evening going over financial reports and preparing what he would wear for his afternoon meeting. He picked out a dark blue suit with pinstripes and a white shirt. Daniel didn't really care for all the pastels and odd colors that he saw men wearing at the office these days. He selected a yellow tie with a small dark blue diamond pattern on it to complete his ensemble. He took a couple of pills that his doctor prescribed for a heart condition he'd had since childhood and settled into his favorite chair. He watched some financial babble on television and turned in earlier than his usual 11:30 p.m.

If Daniel knew that an assassin was watching him, he wouldn't have been so confident. In the darkness of his large bedroom, she sat perched like a gargoyle atop a large antique armoire, watching her victim try to sleep. Daniel felt like something was different. A presence was looming above him, staring straight at him, hate seething through the darkness. He looked around the room, but shadows were all he could discern. For the first time in his life, he felt like something was wrong. The hair on the back of his neck was standing on end. He lay down and felt the incomprehensible feeling increasing in waves. He rolled over and forced himself to stop thinking about it.

Ember sensed the building fear in her victim and took the opportunity to engage in some mischief. Her tail silently unwound and slithered along the wall, knocking a picture from its hanger. The picture clattered to the floor, startling Daniel into a sitting position. "Who's there?" he yelled, but only silence greeted his challenge. Daniel reached over to the light on the nightstand and yanked on the chain, nearly knocking the lamp to the floor. Ember's devilish grin barely hid her desire to shred Daniel to pieces right here. She fought down the urge and looked around to see if there was more trickery to be played before the sun rose.

Daniel looked at the print lying on the floor. The glass on the frame was cracked. He sighed and decided it could wait. At least it didn't shatter, Daniel thought. He'd have the housekeeper take care of it tomorrow. He turned off the light and got back...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Trafford Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1490781277
• ISBN 13: 9781490781273
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 326
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
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