Apocalypse Soldier by William Massa Read Free Book Online Page A

and grabbed the Glock. She rushed toward Ashley’s room.  
    In the living room, Rob remained sprawled on the carpet, still groggy from the blow to the head. Ashley’s screams were still building in intensity. Oh God, what is that psycho doing to her?  
    She dreaded the answer but still managed to kick open the door to Ashley’s bedroom. The door swung back and she stepped inside, gun up and… froze. Ashley stared back at her with big wet eyes, lips quivering. A deep gash ran across her throat and spurted red onto her pink comforter.  
    No…
    The light in her scared eyes was already fading. With one hand Paul finger-painted occult symbols on the wall in Ashley’s blood, while the other clutched a bloody knife. Paul turned. He was shirtless and sported an inverted cross on his chest, a twin to Rob’s scar.
    Knife up, he barreled toward her.  
    Nicole trained with her Glock at least once a month and what happened next was automatic, more reflex than conscious action. She fired and the bullet tore through Paul’s inverted-cross scar almost dead center. The knife clattered on the floor as he went down.
    She’d expected her hands to tremble, but her grip on the Glock was rock steady. Gun out, she moved deeper into Ashley’s bedroom. She didn’t have to be a nurse to know the glazed expression on Ashley’s face meant that she was dead. Poor Ashley… She couldn’t be gone.  
    Hot tears welled up and now her initial calm began to waver as the reality of what had happened came crashing down on her. Who the hell were these freaks? For years she’d worked hard to establish a sense of normalcy in her life, and just when she was beginning to feel hopeful about the future…
    All thoughts stopped when she recognized the image on the wall. Her parents had paid a small fortune in reconstructive surgery, but some of the scars of her possession ran too deep to be erased by a scalpel or a laser. The bloody symbol dripping onto the bedpost was identical to the occult sigil etched into her stomach.  
    The mark of the demon.
    Oh my God, it’s starting again.  
    For years psychologists had tried to convince Nicole that her feeling of being possessed could simply be explained away in psychological terms. To their way of thinking, she’d been going through a difficult phase. Nicole knew goddamn well that her experience hadn’t been some phase. She’d stared into the abyss and an unfathomable evil had risen from it to nearly consume her. It had taught her a vital lesson.  
    Evil was real.  
    The darkness was real.  
    And now it was beginning all over again.
    She heard footsteps behind her and whirled, but the man sneaking up on her was faster. The butt of an AK-47 slammed into her head. Seeing the sigil of the demon oozing down Ashley’s bedroom wall had distracted her long enough to give the assailant the upper hand.  
    She dropped to the floor, reality becoming blurry. She caught a brief glimpse of a man dressed in combat black, eyes peering from a ski mask like he was auditioning for the part of a burglar on some crime show.  
    And then the world turned dark.

C HAPTER S EVEN

    SPECIAL AGENT FRANK Doyle was on his way to question Father Cabrera when he spotted the male nurse emerging from the priest’s hospital room. The growing escalation of these crimes and their religious angle had necessitated the involvement of the FBI. As their resident expert on cult crimes and ritualistic Satanic abuse, Doyle had been tasked with the job.  
    He’d met all the nurses and doctors responsible for Cabrera’s well-being earlier in the day, yet this man leaving Cabrera’s room was a stranger to him. There could be a perfectly innocent explanation for this newcomer’s presence, however, and at this point Doyle was still more curious than suspicious.  
    The male nurse pivoted and walked down the corridor in the opposite direction. His gait was relaxed, deliberate. But Doyle’ alarm bells were going off. There was a coiled