Chris Roberson has been writing tremendous alternative history leger for geezerhood , in addition to his work on comic strip like iZombie and Superman . Now , he ’s gravel a blade unexampled supernatural thriller calledFirewalkcoming in October , and we ’ve get an exclusive first look .
Below , we ’ve take the first excerpt from Firewalk , in which FBI investigator Izzie Lefevre is still haunted by her encounter with a steel - curl serial killer , five years later . Now , she ’s discovering that the coastal metropolis of Recondito arrest more than just human orca — there are supernatural monsters on the unaffixed here .
But first , here ’s the first look at the cover of the book , plus one of the natural covering design that was consider originally :
And here ’s that selection :
Prologue
The killer would n’t cease apologizing as he dismembered the corpse .
“ I ’m so sorry . I never meant for anyone to get hurt . One more and I ’ll be done . ”
Special Agent Isabel Lefevre lay on the rusted alloy plates that form the floor of the lantern elbow room at the top of the pharos . It felt like there was a seam of burn ice on her leg where the slayer ’s vane had morsel into her flesh , which only burned colder when Izzie essay unsuccessfully to stand .
“ I ’m sorry . ” The killer whale ’s vocalism was muffled behind the silver skull mask he wore and sounded strained as he twist the clay ’s left arm free of its socket . “ It ’s too late to intercept now . ”
Izzie had fired two rounds before the killer welt the side arm from her grasp . The down arc of the killer whale ’s forward - curving blade had continued , cut deep into her peg , and he had kick her hitman by from her when Izzie had collapsed on the flooring . She pressed her right decoration intemperately against the cut on the back of her remaining deal , trying to staunch the flow of lineage , but without much success . Her wireless was smash to bits on the storey beside her . She hope that Detective Tevake and the others had try the guesswork , but with the rainfall pelting hard against the windows alfresco and the discordant speed metal blaring from the loudspeaker at the bottom of the stairs , it did n’t seem likely . She considered calling out for him , but there was the killer ’s blade to consider .
“ You do n’t have to do this . ” Izzie ’s voice check as she spoke , and she assay again louder to be hear over the din . “ You do n’t have to do this , Nicholas . You ’ve pull ahead . ”At the auditory sensation of his name the orca paused , and his oculus shift behind the mask as he expect in her direction . “ What did you say ? ”
“ You ’ve won , Nicholas . Whatever your dissonance with the others was about , it ’s over now . You receive what you wanted . There are n’t any remaining . ” Izzie made herself move her gaze to the maimed corpse , the wide cutting across the abdomen , the variety meat and intestines strewn across the trading floor , the severed limb stacked like firewood . “ Francis Zhao was the last one . ”
Holding the handle of his slew steel with his right hand , the Orcinus orca used his leftfield to push the skull dissemble up onto his frontal bone . Izzie realize tired , haunted eyes in the look of the man the news show newsperson had dubbed “ The Recondito Grim Reaper , ” but who she and the rest of the project force knew to be Nicholas Fuller , former researcher at Ross University . The dead adult male lying in pieces on the story in front of him had been a coworker , years before .
“ You think I wanted this ? ” There was a do-or-die boundary to the orca ’s voice . If he was surprised that Izzie knew his name , it did n’t show . “ I warn them ! ”
“ I know . The university administrator tell us all about it . ” She decided to adjudicate a different tack . “ You have the power here . ”
“ The power ? ! ” The killer stand up , gestured to the windows with the long , forward - curving sword , and then pointed to the floor . “ The power is what I ’m worried about ! You think these will protect me for long ? ”
Intricate design had been inscribed on the heavyset spyglass with a black mark , a riot of numerical formulae , tight block of textual matter , strange sigils . On the floor a ring of common salt surrounded pentangle , hexagram , helix , and a mental confusion of other supernatural symbols etched in chalk , including a veve for protection that Izzie make out from her childhood .
“ They are out there in the dark . More of them . Waiting . ” The killer draw the skull cloak back down over his side . “ And I have to halt the ones that are already here . ”
For a disordered moment , Izzie thought that he imply the other police who were already on panorama . Detective Tevake was downstairs and the other two Recondito constabulary officers were search the living quarter next door with Supervisory Special Agent Henderson . But the killer could n’t have know about any of them . He was speak about something else . Something that had him terrified .
“ I want to understand . ” Izzie hear to switch into a sitting position , then slammed back hard on her shoulder when the cut on her pegleg object . She was light - headed from the lineage personnel casualty , and having problem center . She just take to keep him occupy until the others came looking for her . “ excuse it to me . ”
The killer whale knelt back down and take hold of the dead man ’s hair with one hand , and started sawing at his cervix with the other .
“ Gravity leaks into other spaces , but doorway swing out both ways . They went down into the dark , and the iniquity came back with them . Ridden . Passengers . I see it , even if no one else did . I did n’t understand it myself , until the old daykeeper yield me the winder . He showed me how to walk through the fire , and see the shadows for what they are . But now he ’s gone , and there ’s just me . I only have one more to go and my study is finished . Just one more . ”
The sea wolf seemed to have forgotten she was there . His representative was little more than a heart murmur as he sawed and hacked at the deadened gentleman’s gentleman ’s neck , and she fight to hear him over the medicine blare on a lower floor .
“ One more what , Nicholas ? ” Had he target another victim ? Was there a member of the university ’s Undersight team that the task force had fail to discover ?
The killer endure up , hold the drained homo ’s severed header by the hair .
“ The scholarly person . I have to discover him , and then I will — ”
“ Freeze ! ”
Detective Patrick Tevake stood on the top footstep of the coiling stairway , purport his pistol at the killer ’s back .
The killer plough , sever head teacher in one paw , blade in the other . When Izzie had entered the lantern room he had been behind the door , catching her off safety , but now he was too far away for his vane to be of much use against the police police officer ’s semi - reflex .
“ I sound out do n’t move ! ”
“ You ca n’t block me now . ” The grampus submit a step forwards , bringing him closer to where Izzie repose on the level . “ It ’s almost over — ”
Five rounds slammed into the killer ’s torso . As he staggered back , his leaf blade fall and clattered on the metallic element home base while the severed header roll across the floor , coming to rest at Izzie ’s side .
“ Almost — ” The cause of death ’s voice gurgled as lineage welled at the corners of his backtalk .
The killer fell backwards , shatter the windowpane on impact . Broken symbolic representation and ruined formulae rain down down as he fell through .
Izzie look over at the severed pass on the level beside her . The numb valet de chambre ’s eyes were close , and his expression seemed strangely tranquil . She could n’t help but gasp .
“ Now it ’s over . ” Detective Tevake had crossed the level to take care down at the killer ’s body on the white rocks below . He glanced over his shoulder at Izzie . “ Agent Lefevre , you hanging in there ? ”
Izzie could get wind her heartbeat pound in her ears . Her head teacher swam . Darkness crawled at the edges of her vision .
“ Agent Lefevre ? ” The detective was coming towards her now , holstering his pistol . “ Izzie ? ”
The numb human beings had opened his eye and was looking directly into hers . Now his mouth began to move , lip clearly forming word , though with no lungs to labour air through his voice box he made no sound . Then the swarthiness closed in around her .
“ Izzie , can you hear me ? ”
“ Can you hear me ? ”
Special Agent Isabel Lefevre sat at her desk in the Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico , holding the cold charge plate of her telephone against her ear , listening to a articulation she ’d not find out in five age .
“ Yes , ” she finally managed . “ I can find out you . ”
“ You have to come back to Recondito , Izzie . ” Patrick Tevake sounded stricken . “ It is n’t over . ”
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