QSFer Seb L. Carter has a new MM Urban Fantasy book out:
A stone holds an ancient secret—and the key to present-day terror. A murder-suicide was only the beginning.
Seven years ago, Liam’s father picked up a gun, killed his family then himself. Liam was left behind to carry the burden and the guilt. Now Liam only wants to finish college and live a normal life. But when he is handed a stone, a stone that appears plain, he is catapulted into an unknown world of mystery and magic… and mayhem.
A CIA agent finds himself a part of something with more secrets than the government he works for. Patrick possesses a psychic ability to find people. Coerced to find Liam, their first meeting reawakens an ancient connection. Together, they find themselves in the midst of a culling, the destruction of a secret society formed millennia ago.
Destiny unites a group of strangers to face an antediluvian evil that has the world as its prize.
The Stone is a 142,000-word paranormal, urban fantasy adventure that involves a secret agent, a law man, and a gay guy who becomes a hero.
This novel features an LGBT relationship with a low-heat romantic subplot.
Lockstone Book One
Excerpt
Zach returned to face Stephen Penrose again, and he opened the folder on the table, the top picture being that of a photo of a group of twelve standing before the Seattle Chapter sign. They were the faces of the nine victims along with others. He laid it out in front of Penrose and turned it so that he could get a good look at it.
But Penrose reached out quick and grabbed Zach by the wrist and held on tight. Zach tried to pull away, but he was unable to break free. Penrose was a lot stronger than he appeared. Something happened. The air in the room changed, felt charged somehow, and Zach’s ears popped.
“Hey!” Zach jerked his hand back with two solid tugs, moving himself away from the table enough that Stephen Penrose couldn’t go any further due to the constraints of the handcuffs on his wrists. Zach held his wrist like he’d been burned. “What the hell was that?”
Glenda was ready too. There was a commotion at the door as two armed officers came in.
Penrose paid them no attention. He kept his eyes locked on Zach, eyes that were wide. He had an aroused expression on his face that made Zach’s stomach do flips. “I had to be sure,” Penrose said.
“You don’t touch me during this interrogation,” Zach yelled. “You don’t touch anyone! That clear?”
But Penrose was silent. Finally, he leaned back in his chair. “How is your son, Agent Shepard?” Penrose sat folded his hands.
Zach tensed. He kept his features under control, all things considered, but the tension was tight in his neck. But then he relaxed. “Please, Penrose. Nice trick. You had a 50/50 shot of guessing…”
“Toby. Sometimes you and your wife—your ex-wife—call him Bubba or Tobes. Toby Scott when he’s in trouble.”
Zach lost the ability to breathe momentarily.
“A soccer player with games every Saturday, has a yellow Mongoose Legion bike that you bought for him to ride during your last visit, and you were barely able to get him to put down the game controllers on his X-Box long enough to spend that quality time together that you crave oh so much.”
Zach pounded the table. “You leave my son out of this, you sick son of a bitch.”
But Penrose didn’t even flinch. “And your ex-wife. Aubrey. A pretty woman that you couldn’t keep hold of. It’s hard to do when you’re so married to your job. It’s no surprise, really, that they both left you.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Zach said. He regretted saying it even before it left his mouth, but he was powerless to stop it.
Glenda put a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Let’s go,” she said. She tried to pull Zach away, but Zach wouldn’t budge.
“How do you know them?” Zach demanded. He leaned forward even as Glenda pulled him by an arm.
Penrose grinned. “You just told me,” he said. “And now they all know.”
Zach froze again. “Who? Who knows? What do they know?”
“Your role in all of this,” Penrose said.
Zach didn’t understand.
“I still have one more job to do before my role in all of this is over, Zachary Shepard, to secure the way for her majesty’s arrival,” Penrose said, almost in a whisper.
The click was almost lost. It was the glint of metal falling to the table that Zach noticed first. The handcuffs that kept Stephen Penrose locked down clattered to the metal tabletop. And Penrose moved fast. He held his now-free arm to the side, and a blade filled the space beyond the palm of his hand. A sword.
Somehow Zach saw this play out almost in slow motion. A ripple worked over the whole of Zach’s body. The blade that Penrose now held arced toward Zach, aimed for his neck.
But Zach had time. A strange amount of time. An inordinate amount of time. The realization came to him almost as if he thought of it while sitting quiet on Sunday morning: This is how he killed them, the victims in La Jolla and Seattle. A sword that came from nothing.
Zach ducked. The blade passed over him, and as soon as it did, time reasserted itself with the sound like a recording speeding up again. Zach shoved himself back, his chair tipping over to the floor and spilling him out backwards so that he rolled over and into the wall opposite where Penrose sat.
Penrose was on his feet. “Clever, Agent,” he said.
Author Bio
Sebastian Carter escaped Dallas, Texas years ago to study at DePaul University. Once there, he managed to earn a pretentious sounding degree, acquire a Yorkie Poo named Bailey, and fall in love with Chicago. Although it’s given him plenty of fodder for his books, Sebastian doesn’t miss his previous life as a flight attendant. Writing novels about men falling in love with other men is much more fulfilling… and with the added bonus of a guaranteed happily-ever-after.
Sebastian Carter also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Seb L. Carter.