The Cerberus Protocol

A novel in the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles urban fantasy series

When Knight Commander Cade Williams discovers that his wife, Gabrielle, is not truly dead, but held in some kind of arcane stasis between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead, he vows that nothing will stop him from freeing her soul from the prison surrounding her.

But his vow is tested right from the start when an old friend calls on him to help protect the city of Boston from the ancient scourge that threatens to destroy it, leaving Cade with a heart-breaking choice: Do his duty and save the innocent lives he has sworn to protect or forsake them all in order to rescue the one for whom he would brave the walls of hell itself?

The men of the Echo Team are back for another action-packed Templar adventure!

Three years ago an archaeological expedition led by Vatican scholar Juan Vargas discovered something unusual on the shores of the Dead Sea. Early the next morning, Father Vargas, and the artifact he uncovered, disappeared without a trace.

Until now.

An injured and badly dehydrated Father Vargas wanders out of the New Mexican desert, telling a wild story about a secret research installation and bloodthirsty demons hunting men through its halls. When word of his survival reaches the Vatican and those in charge of the Templar Order, the Echo Team is called in to deal with the situation. Their orders - investigate the facility, determine exactly what happened there, and deal with any infernal presence that might exist.

But the being they encounter there beneath the desert sands has found a way to break the bonds of Hell itself and doesn't plan on going back easily. This time, their foe might prove to be too much for even Cade and the men of Echo Team.

A horrifying serial killer is loose on the streets of Boston and Lawson must track him down. But this killer has a past...and a terrifying agenda. And it's one that will shock even the most jaded Fixer around.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Meet Lawson: vampire by birth, Fixer by trade. His mission: preserve the secret existence of vampires by any means necessary.

LAWSON.

A cynical, wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance - the secret existence of a race of LIVING vampires that have evolved alongside humanity for thousands of years.

A FIXER.

Part-spy, and part-commando -- James Bond with fangs. Lawson mixes shrewd cunning with unmatched lethality to get his job done. He tries his best to dismantle conspiracies, dispatch bad guys, and live long enough to get home.

ARTHUR.

The grizzled retired Fixer has seen his share of danger, and he's also got his share of skeletons in his closet. Now, one of them is coming back.

THE RIPPER.

A horrifying serial killer that is targeting young vampire women and leaving their eviscerated bodies on the streets of Boston.

MARTY.

She wants nothing more than to become a Fixer, like Lawson. But will her desire end up killing her?

NILES.

Lawson's Control is in love, but can he finally enjoy a relationship that lasts, or will this one lead to more heartbreak?

XIANG.

A top Chinese assassin in Boston and on Lawson's tail. But what's he really in town to accomplish?

N'YAK TUL

An ancient race of subterranean dwellers too frightening to ever see the light of day again...hopefully.

The long-awaited return to the world of the Templar Chronicles by the internationally bestselling author of Eyes to See and By the Blood of Heroes!

The Templars have emerged victorious following their battle with the Chiang Shih, but paid a high price in doing so.  The dead line the halls of the local commanderies and the survivors are both physically and spiritually exhausted.  Estimates suggest it will take years for the Order to recover.

Even Echo Team has been decimated; its ranks reduced by half.  Knight Commander Cade Williams managed to survive his journey deep into the heart of the Beyond and his subsequent confrontation with the Adversary, but he has returned a changed man; his thirst for vengeance quenched but his spirit broken.  As a result, command of Echo has passed to the newly-promoted Captain Riley.

It is the moment Simon Logan, former leader of the Council of Nine and the man once known as the Necromancer, has been waiting for.  In a daring prison break, he frees himself from Templar control and vanishes into the night.  Given the difficulty the Order had in capturing him the first time, the assignment to track Logan down falls to those who know him best – Captain Riley and the newly reformed Echo Team.

But rather than waiting for Echo to coming looking for him, the Necromancer takes the battle to them instead; luring former Commander Williams away from his home and stealing the physical form of his wife, Gabrielle, a woman caught somewhere between life and death.

It is perhaps the one act that could rouse Cade from the grey haze his life has become.  As he ruthlessly tracks the Necromancer through this world and the next,  Cade can’t help but ask himself what Logan might want with a half-dead woman and the man who had literally travelled to hell and back to rescue her.

One thing is for certain – Cade won’t rest until Gabrielle is by his side once more.

A former SWAT officer turns modern Templar Knight in this exciting new urban fantasy series for fans of Jim Butcher, Rob Thurman, and Patricia Briggs! 

Boston SWAT officer Cade Williams doesn't believe in the supernatural until a chance meeting with a fallen angel leaves his wife dead and him holding on to life by the thinnest of margins.  When he is discharged from the hospital, scarred body and soul, he discovers the encounter has left him with a few otherworldly talents of his own.

Several years later, Knight Commander Cade Williams runs the elite Templar combat unit known as the Echo Team, which puts him in the perfect position to search for the creature he's come to know as the Adversary.  His efforts yield little success, however, until a cabal of necromancers attempts to seize an ancient Templar artifact for their own nefarious purposes and gives him the first real lead he's had in ages.  Now it's time for Cade to face his demons - human and otherwise.

PRAISE FOR THE HERETIC:

"First-rate, stylish work from Mr. Nassise, with a steady escalation of the story's speed that makes it almost literally breath-taking." -- Clive Barker

"This book bobs and weaves like the young Muhammed Ali, keeping us off-guard and entertained with its every surprising move." -- Peter Straub

"A breakneck-paced thriller that delivers on the thrills and tosses in more than a few more chills." -- Kelley Armstrong

A collection of spine-tingling tales of horror and the supernatural from the internationally bestselling author of the Templar Chronicles series.

FEATURING

Carrion Man - When the circus comes to town and children begin to disappear, the police turn to Grayson Shaw, a man whose affinity for the living is surpassed only by his affinity for the dead.

Becoming Michael - Sometimes it not whether you win or lose that matters, but what side you chose when its time to play the game.

Down Among the Bosnian Dead - In the killing fields and mass graves of Bosnia, Sgt, Michael Raines discovers that sometimes dead don't rest as quietly as we might like them to.

Roadside Memorials - Driver Martin Jones discovers that there's more to those impromptu roadside memorials than he ever imagined.

Siren Call - From the depths of an alien ocean comes a call of haunting beauty and terrible consequence.

Money Well Earned - A killer for hire who has had his fair share of unique assignments finds himself confronted with his strangest yet.

In the Eye of the Beholder - They say that art is in the eye of the beholder, but painter Kensington Wales takes that saying a bit more literally than most.

The Urge - How far would you go to put a terrible injustice to rights?

Saintkiller - The sudden appearance of stigmata on the hands of Detective Michael Stone causes him to question both his faith and his purpose, especially when each episode is accompanied by the death of an innocent...

1982: It was supposed to be a well-deserved break from elite Selection training for STA-F, but an hour into a flight to the sandy white beaches of Santorini, Lawson's flight is hijacked by a trio of vampires and redirected to the island nation of Malta. With the local authorities and a squadron of Delta Force operators surrounding them, the bad guys need Lawson to do them a favor: escape the plane and break someone out of protective custody on the island. But just who is this target and why do they want him so badly? With time ticking down, Lawson's got to sort it all out before he winds up in the crosshairs and gets a double-tap for his trouble.

A special Lawson Vampire mission that reunites the Fixer Lawson with Jack the Invoker. When the death of a prominent vampire on the Maine coast leads to a community squabble, Lawson is dispatched the mediate. What he and Jack find instead may be a whole lot more sinister than they imagined...and part of a puzzle that has been plaguing Lawson for years.

A road manager who will do anything for his zombie rockstar. A violin with a hunger for the music deep enough to match that of any aspiring artist. An off-world expedition that discovers there might be more to those ancient legends than we ever imagined...

Ten tales of horror and supernatural suspense from some of the brightest stars in horror today, including internationally bestselling authors Joseph Nassise, Jon F. Merz, and Scott Nicholson, as well as four time Bram Stoker Award winner Lisa Morton.

Stories by:
Kealan Patrick Burke
Maria Alexander
Lisa Morton
Joe McKinney
Jeremy C. Shipp
Simon Wood
Nate Kenyon
Scott Nicholson
Jon F. Merz
Joseph Nassise

A forgotten chamber secreted beneath a river. An ancient evil that lies slumbering in the dark. A guardian determined to fulfill his duty to his last, dying breath.

As something dark and deadly takes to the skies over Harrington Falls, Jake Caruso and his friends, Sam Travers and Katelynn Riley, find themselves drawn into a primeval conflict set in motion centuries before. When fresh blood is spilled and the death toll mounts, these three friends will find themselves faced with a terror beyond imagination, one that will require every vestige of their strength, faith, and determination to confront.


PRAISE FOR RIVERWATCH
Nominated for the International Horror Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel

Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel

"A modern gothic thriller...scary...remarkable." - Denver Rocky Mountain News

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joseph Nassise is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling TEMPLAR CHRONICLES series, the JEREMIAH HUNT trilogy, and the GREAT UNDEAD WAR series. He has also written several books in the popular Rogue Angel action-adventure series.

He is a multiple Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee and his work has been translated into half a dozen languages to date. He has written for both the comic and role-playing game industries and also served two terms as president of the Horror Writers Association, the world's largest organization of professional horror and dark fantasy writers.

For more information about Joe's work, visit him on the web at josephnassise.com.