About This Book
"The child stepped into the light. Curious, the eyes...their color looked almost yellow. Perhaps it was the light. One would think them hazel, then a sort of green with flecks of gold... Red pools swirled in them as the boy began to smile, his mouth widening into an impossible grin. Crispin had seen that grin before in Regents Park--there was a hyena at the London Zoo..." VICTORIAN LONDON in 1885: Druidic ritual calls up terror and 19 aristocrats die a gruesome death. Only a pregnant servant survives as the new life within her is bewitched by the dance of a demon. ON A SHIP BOUND FROM LONDON TO NEW YORK in 1894: a small boy enslaves a conman. Traveling the wooded paths of rural New England, they murder the unwary. The boy, Bernie, is the servant's child. Craving his demon master's approval, Bernie's victims' agony pays tribute. If he does well, there are rewards... The Ohio wilderness holds a cabin where rituals can breach the barrier between two worlds; a tear large enough can admit an invasion. The thinnest of veils protects this world's creatures from the demons of an alien dimension. They gather to feed on the chaos created by slow pain, agony and death. AN OHIO CABIN in 1900: Bernie fails. Abandoned by his demon masters, he longs for redemption, but first, he must wait. CHRISTMAS EVE of 1965: Bernie's wait ends when an Ohio prison fire consumes 300 inmates, their agony resulting in a reward for the servant's child, now an old man and a convicted murderer. Calling up the demon fire, he knows his cell rests above the ground where the cabin once stood. His reward is power and the youth, identity, charm and intelligence of his cellmate, John Arnold. These gifts lead Bernie to the U.S. Senate. As Senator John Arnold, misfortune and misery swarm all he touches. IT'S 2004 AND CHRISTMAS EVE APPROACHES: Time for another fire. This time it's a shopping mall, built on the site where the prison once stood. His next "life"will be lived as a young girl--a 19 year-old mall employee--and the intended victim is psychic. The girl knows what and who is after her. No matter, Bernie's dealt with psychics before--all of them women and none were a challenge save one, and only because she had help--an unfair advantage. it's a minor complication--or is it?
