Free The Templar Chronicles by Joseph Nassise

Cade was no longer listening. He leapt to his feet and rushed the front door, hoping his severe departure from standard police procedure would catch their assailant off guard long enough for him to make the safety of the porch.
    Flash…
    Inside.
    A harsh laugh coming from the kitchen, down the hall in front of him.
    The light from that room spilled out into the hallway, and movement in the shadows cast on the floor let Cade know there were at least two people in there. As he got closer, he could hear his wife sobbing.
    With his gun held out before him in a shooter’s stance, he took a deep breath and entered the room, a look of confidence on his face and fear in his heart.
    Flash…
    Cade knew the man standing in his kitchen with a pistol at his wife’s head. Not personally, but he knew him nonetheless. He’d just spent the last five hours staring at his likeness in a police sketch, for he was wanted in connection with several recent homicides.
    What Cade didn’t understand was what the hell the Dorchester Slasher was doing in his home, threatening his wife.
    Cade’s arms moved slightly, and his aim settled on the center of the intruder’s forehead.
    Flash…
    “What do you want?” Cade asked calmly.
    “What do I want?” the intruder cackled.
    The hairs on the back of Cade’s arms stood at attention.
    Cade’s gun never wavered.
    “Look. I can get you whatever you want,” he said, indicating the radio on his belt. “All you’ve got to do is tell me what it is and let the woman go. We can work this out.”
    “Aren’t you even curious, Officer Cade?”
    “I’m sorry?”
    “Aren’t you curious? About why I’m in your house? Why I shot your partner and am holding your wife hostage?” He giggled. “ Aren’t you curious about why I’m going to kill you both?”
    Gabbi’s eyes widened.
    Flash…
    Cade pulled the trigger and put a bullet through the right side of the Slasher’s forehead.
    The shot twisted his body back and away from Gabbi, as his finger tightened on the trigger.
    The gun went off.
    Flash…
    Gabbi gasping, her eyes wide with shock. Cade walked over and put his arms around her, holding her tight. From out in the hall he could hear Jackson calling his name.
    “We’re in here. We’re okay,” Cade called back.
    Flash…
    One minute the Slasher was lying on his back, the next he was standing beside them. Before any of them could react, he grabbed Gabbi with one hand on either side of her head. Wrenching her away from Cade, he shoved his face against hers.
    An inky blackness swelled forth from the corpse’s mouth, enveloping Gabbi’s face. Cade could hear her screaming, and beneath that a wet lapping sound, like a dog drinking from a bowl of water. He forced himself into motion, intent on getting that horrible thing away from his wife, and though he knew he was moving with his usual agility, each second seemed to pass with excruciating slowness. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jackson’s hand reaching for his weapon, taking what seemed like hours to move only a few inches.
    Flash…
    The thing released his wife, casting her away from itself across the room, her face a mess of raw flesh and blood, the outer layer of skin torn off. As she fell Cade could see her eyes were fixed and staring, and he knew in that second that he had lost her. His hand reached for his weapon as the corpse in front of him began shaking violently.
    A crack suddenly appeared in the thing’s forehead, starting at the bullet wound and flowing like rainwater down across its face. As Cade dragged his weapon free of its holster, the corpse’s hands moved with dizzying speed and shoved its fingers into either side of the crack on its face.
    Pulling sharply in either direction, it split its own skull in two, revealing the thing that lingered beneath.
    For just a moment a face could be seen, with eyes a deep crimson and teeth gleaming blood red in the room’s light. A malevolent smile crossed its face as it