Trail of Shadows — Mike Allen

Two-time World Fantasy Award finalist Mike Allen spins a tale of spirit beings, serial killers, and supernatural horrors.Nathan's freshman year in college delivers alternative rock, relationship adventures-and a plague of waking nightmares. He flees campus for the Appalachian Trail, hoping to leave his personal demons behind. But a scream for help from a boy made of shadows rips his reality to pieces. The rescue of the boy ends in a blood-soaked struggle that teaches Nathan monsters are real. And that he is one of them. Forgotten powers and hungers from his childhood manifest in claws that can tear apart flesh and spirit.But wonders soon bring terrors as the revelation of Nathan's true nature exposes his existence to enemies he never knew he had. As he desperately seeks the ancestor who can unlock the secrets of his heritage, a shape-shifting mass murderer stalks close behind. And even worse things await him in the shadows of the spirit realm.