Free The Templar Chronicles by Joseph Nassise Page B

deeper darkness at the rear of the chapel behind the altar, back where the sacristy had once been. It did not come fully into the light; indeed, had never done so in the months since it had first unexpectedly taken up residence here. Once, the Necromancer had gotten a brief glimpse of the creature, a quick vision of a humanoid form, but that had been all he’d seen before it had retreated into the darkness it seemed to prefer. He hoped never to repeat the experience. Summoning his courage, Logan began. “The search for the Spear continues, though we have recently begun to narrow the area of interest. The one they call the Heretic has been assigned to the case, just as you predicted, and is even now following the trail we have laid out for him.”
    “Good.” The voice was deep, guttural, and it danced along his nerve endings like grease on a spit, grease that pops and cracks with searing heat as it drips into the fire. “You have done as I have asked, then?”
    The Necromancer nodded, knowing from past experience that the other could see him quite clearly despite the cloying darkness of the chapel’s interior.
    A sound came from it then, a sound that might have been a laugh though not one that could ever have been produced by human vocal cords. When it had exhausted its good humor, it went on. “Set out the bait. It is time we caught our prey.”
    “As you wish.”
    The Necromancer bowed curtly and backed out of the chamber, never taking his gaze away from the thing that stood before him.
    Despite their temporary partnership, the Necromancer had no delusions about the nature of his ally.
    It would destroy him on a whim, just as it had decided to aid him.
    He had come too far, was too close to his goal, to allow that to happen. He would give it no reason to doubt him.
    Not until he was ready.

CHAPTER TEN
    The four members of Echo’s command team arrived at the Cincinnati International Airport around 6 A.M. local time. A rented Ford Explorer was waiting for them in the private hangar where the pilot parked the aircraft. Their destination was about an hour’s drive north, and after transferring their gear into the vehicle the team wasted no time getting under way. Cade and Olsen climbed in back, with Riley behind the wheel and Duncan riding shotgun.
    Cade stared out the rear passenger window. He couldn’t get the echo of Gabbi’s voice out of his head, calling out his name the night before.
    But Gabbi was dead and, as far as he knew, at rest. In the five years since her passing he’d never once encountered her in the Beyond, never had even a single hint that her spirit still languished there. He’d long ago come to the conclusion that she had passed on to whatever version of an afterlife someone of her sweet grace deserved. And yet…
    And yet you hope it was her, don’t you? You hope it was because you miss her and because every single day living without her seems to be a waste. No matter what it would mean to her, to be trapped in that half state of existence like the phantoms you encounter in the Beyond, you still want to believe, don’t you?
    Grudgingly, Cade had to admit to himself that it was true. Every morning when he awoke to find himself without her was another day in which his heart broke anew.
    Cade’s own views of heaven and hell had been drastically altered when he first looked into the Beyond. It would have been impossible for them not to have changed. Raised as a Catholic, he’d believed in an afterlife based on one’s faith in the Savior and had scoffed at notions of ghosts and goblins as far back as he could remember.
    His encounter with the Adversary had changed all that.
    If he had not discovered the Order when he had, he probably wouldn’t have survived. His pain, confusion, and fear would have driven him over the edge. The Templars had helped him resurrect a framework around his beliefs; allowed him to hang on to the cherished notion that his wife’s soul had moved on to a better place.