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Authors: Michelle Belanger

Harsh Gods (44 page)

BOOK: Harsh Gods
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Good luck.

Bobby pushed back from the table again, skin taking on a greenish cast as he blanched. He took a long swallow of coffee, staring at a point beyond my ear. The sound and feel of all the people swelled suddenly, pressing like some rough beast against my cowl.

A sigh escaped him. A portion of the young detective’s innocence seemed to flee with the sound.

“The human monsters are bad enough,” he murmured.

“What happened to Garrett wasn’t usual. Things like that…” I trailed off, acutely aware that my next word could be a lie.

The time for lies was over.

Bobby studied me for a long moment, then his gaze strayed to the people gathered in the coffee house. He lingered on each in turn, keen eyes taking in details of their stance, their dress—all the little stories each telegraphed unconsciously about their lives. He turned solemn eyes back to me, all but pleading.

“Can we protect them?” he asked. “Is there even a chance?”

The inside of the coffee shop grew cavernous, like I might lose myself if I relinquished my grip on the back of the chair. Fiercely, I dug my fingers into the metal.

“I’m going to try,” I said. “I swear it.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to Lucienne Diver at the Knight Agency for continued help in navigating the daunting territory of contract negotiations and industry jargon. More than that—I value you also for your willingness to listen as a friend. Steve Saffel—you’re in the same boat. In your role of Dark Editorial Overlord, your uncanny talent for crawling into Zack’s head has vastly improved me as a writer, but it’s your candid insight that makes the whole process enriching on a personal level.

To all the people at Titan whose hard work ferried
Harsh Gods
from manuscript to mass market—Miranda Jewess, Cat Camacho, Vivian Cheung, Nick Landau, Laura Price, Paul Gill, Lydia Gittins—rarely do your names get attached to all the work you help bring into the world, but without your tireless effort and support, the Shadowside series would still be living on my hard drive. Among the Titan crew, special thanks go out to Chris Young, whose email responses are as speedy as the Internet realm which he oversees, and also to Julia Lloyd for transforming my sketchy notes into amazing covers. I can’t believe you found a jambiya!

Finally, to my devoted Elyria, bringer of tea, wrangler of emails, and distractor of cats—you are the reason I can keep doing this no matter what else is raining down on me from life. Thank you for reminding me to get out from under the keyboard once in a while.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michelle Belanger
is most widely recognized for appearances on television’s
Paranormal State
. A leading authority on psychic and supernatural topics, her non-fiction research in books like
The Dictionary of Demons
and
The Psychic Vampire Codex
has been sourced in television shows, university courses, and numerous publications around the world. She has worked as a media liaison for fringe communities, performed with gothic and metal bands, lectured on vampires at colleges across North America, and designed immersive live action RPGs for companies such as Wizards of the Coast. Her research on the Watcher Angels has led to both a Tarot Deck as well as the album, “Blood of Angels.” Michelle resides near Cleveland, Ohio in a house with two cats, a few friendly spirits, and a library of over four thousand books. More information can be found at

www.michellebelanger.com
.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

THE SHADOWSIDE SAGA
Michelle Belanger
CONSPIRACY OF ANGELS

Zack Westland awakens on the shore of Lake Erie, his memory gone. Assaulted by powerful psychic fragments, he learns that he belongs to a tribe of angels—one of several living on Earth since the Blood Wars. Pursued by cacodaimons intent on killing him—again—he seeks to end war between the tribes.

THE RESURRECTION GAME

The city is terrorized by a rash of ritualistic murders. When Zack teams with occult expert Madison Young, he discovers that he may be intimately connected with the murderer.

Available 2017

TITAN
BOOKS.COM

 
A TASTE OF BLOOD WINE
Freda Warrington

A tale of passion, betrayal… and blood…

On a First World War battlefield vampire Karl von Wultendorf struggles to free himself from his domineering maker, Kristian. The Neville sisters flourish in decadent, hedonistic London society in 1923: champagne, parties and the latest illegal substances. All except Charlotte, the middle of the three sisters who hides in a corner wishing she were back in Cambridge helping her professor father with his scientific experiments.

When Charlotte meets her father’s new research assistant Karl, it is the beginning of a deadly obsession that divides her from her sisters, her father and even her dearest friend. What price are they willing to pay to stay together?

TITAN
BOOKS.COM

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BOOK: Harsh Gods
10.84Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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